Has anyone gotten reliable 4G coverage?

[noshooz]

Downtown Baltimore, great 4G coverage everywhere. It's sporadic to the southwest of the city in the burbs, where I live. Comes and goes a lot, which jibes with what the Sprint 4G coverage maps show. I can get one-two bars on the grounds of my church, but lose it when I go inside.

 

[roothog]

I can get one-two bars on the grounds of my church, but lose it when I go inside.

I suggest not going to church as a solution to your signal drop.

 

[Edge767]

In Houston, I can get reliable 4G anywhere within the Beltway and in most places outside of it.

 

[jaytank]

I am constantly hitting 4-5 Down and 1-1.5 Up in NOVA (Primarily in Alexandria, VA)

http://www.speedtest.net/android/7828394.png

Louving it

 

[Robbie317]

I don't even live in a Sprint 4G area but 4G is up and running in Nashville, TN.... The connection is not that reliable but it makes little sense... Clearwire offers wireless broadband internet service (which is WiMax) in Nashville but Sprint does not advertise the area as having it. If I turn on my 4G antenna I can get connected to 4G all over Nashville and surrounding area's. The speeds do not overly impress me. Yeah it's about 2 - 3 times what I get on 3G but when loading any specific web page the time lag between 3G and 4G is so minimal that it's not even a big deal. The "ONLY" positive I have found with 4G turned on is you can upload or download large attachments (Video) much, much faster than on 3G but basic web browsing is almost no difference. Maybe it has some thing to do with Sprint not officially having 4G.... But even when I was visiting family in Raleigh/Durham, NC which shows pretty much covered up 4G I had some spots where I got 7 - 8 Mbps down and then other area's where it was only about 2 Mbps vs 1 Mbps on 3G.....

 

[bobodobo]

I'm on the fringe of the downtown LA area - there no advertised 4G coverage in DTLA but I get consistent 4G. Today it's 3533 kbps up / 670 kbps down. If I turn off 4G it's 0.178 / 0.189 on 3G.

What's interesting is that my 3G/phone coverage is somewhat marginal right where my office happens to be, yet 4G is consistent. So can I conclude that 4G uses separate towers or at least separate antennas?

 

[FractalSphere]

Yes, I have some regular, but spotty coverage in Chicago.

My downtown office (River North area) gets fairly regular 4G coverage (medium strength) and my house (Addison and the Kennedy) gets similar coverage. In motion in the car, or other places it's definitely failing over to 3G more often than not.

4G is the up-and-coming thing, so it can only get better over the next few months, right?

The main issue I see as frustrating is if I'm on a phone call, google maps won't update info in 3G, but does (mostly) in 4G.

 

[bubbatex]

Now, before anyone gets in a tizzy, this isn't a post complaining about lack of 4G coverage that wasn't promised.

I'm just wondering if there are areas where people are using 4G daily with few drops or dark areas.

When I activate 4G, I usually pick it up with two "arches" and get pretty good speeds. However, it almost always drops out within 10 minutes or so and goes back to 3G. That wouldn't be a big deal, but you end up with a 30 second gap in data coverage that disrupts anything you're trying to do at the time.

So, for now I just check occasionally to get any better and don't try to use 4G for any actual data intensive apps. My 3G speeds are fine so it's not like I'm stuck in the mud.

So, who out there gets reliable coverage?

I live in Austin, TX - north Austin and my experience is exactly the same. I can connect, get 1 or 2 bars, do a Speedtest and get over 3mbps and then start to use it and it drops or hangs. Overall, 3G seems to be as fast in use (beyond a minute or two) and is more reliable. I am only really interested in 4G when I am in a 4G area and need to tether.

 

[bubbatex]

Darth, there is a thread on xda developers addressing this issue...

4G reconnecting issue? - xda-developers

I too have trouble keeping a reliable 4G connection, both pre and post root. You may want to check out the thread & perhaps contribute.

Since I am not rooted, I tried a suggestion in this thread - turn off mobile data when you turn on 4G (that way the phone will not easily switch back to a stronger 3G signal). So far after 15 minutes of browsing, it has not dropped yet. Seems to be more consistent when it was not 30 minutes ago before I tried this trick.

 

[youngzayiles]

I havent gotten any 4g coverage in Sacramento, Ca... This phone is a rip off.... lol

 

[clavodulce16]

I am in the NW burbsies of Chi and get exceptional 4g coverage. Even inside my home I am getting around 4mbps down, outside around 6-7 mbps.

Anyone ever get 8 or over down?

i was able to get 8.67 in nyc

 

[phillysdon04]

I live in Philadelphia and 4g isn't reliable everywhere. Now I'm on vacation and 4g is great in Austin and Dallas Texas.

 

[organix]

I am in Chicago and the 4G sucks. If I am indoors...forget it. I can get 4G on the streets downtown though...yay.

I've pretty much given up on even turning it on.

 

[eharty]

I am in the western suburbs of Chicago and there is no 4G coverage at all.

 

[BMAX]

I'm in St. Louis. Just got my phone, after 2 days in several different areas of the city I have seen 4G pop up only 4 times, each lasting less than 2 minutes or less. It was so quick to drop I didn't even have time to open the speed test app.

 

[mitch2k12]

How do you measure what your down and up speeds are?

 

[crzycrkr]

I'm sitting in Chicago O'Hare airport tethering on 4G getting 13-14MB down and just under 2 MB up.

 

[gotthelife4u]

I was at the sprint store last night on Stevens Creek in San Jose. The Sprint Rep told me to check out the EVO because it is connected to 4G. I tried a few time but it would not stay connected. I know 4G isn't green lit just yet but it wanted to connect.

 

[noshooz]

I got the chance to try out Sprint TV in 4G this evening, we happened to be having dinner out at a restaurant situated right next to a tower that has it (Clarksville, MD on 108 near the River Hill Village Center). A speed test showed 5073K down! I checked out three live channels; Disney, ABC News Now, and ESPN. The channels played in a smaller than full screen window. They were clear and sharp, with no pixelation or lagging video. Very impressive! Call it coincidence, but there was a TV on in the bar area that showed two commercials for Clear while we were there.

 

[noshooz]

How do you measure what your down and up speeds are?

I use the speedtest.net app from the Market. Or you can use Speakeasy - Speed Test using the web browser.