Skyrocket HSPA+ speed observation (in SF)

[netarc]

Popped in to a local ATT store in SF to check out the skyrocket ... surprisingly, it doesn't appear much larger at all then my GS2. I did a speakeasy speedtest and was blown away that the sky hit 14Mbps download! The highest I've seen on my GS2 has been 9 down (alas, I couldn't do a sidebyside test of sky v. GS2 because my phone was acting flaky - powered down & owuldn't power up again, even though it was at 20% battery!)

I'm quite happy w/the GS2, but the one, significant pain point of that phone is the terrible VVM via AT&T Messages app. In the last week I've had at least 3 messages that were never delivered by the app (i.e., dialing in to the system I could play them, but the never arrived at the phone), and a few that came down hours later than when they were left. Oddly, whenever I do a test call to my phone and leave vm, the VM comes down quick and w/o issue ... go figure.

Anyway, since I use my phone primarily for my business, unreliable voicemail is a deal-breaker.

I've heard that the VVM on the skyrocket is much smoother, which is why I'm going to be trading in my GS2 tomorrow (a mere 4 days b4 the 30day return period!) and trying out the skyrocket. I'm hoping that the 30 day return period will recommence with my skyrocket purchase (fwiw, I got the GS2 from radio shack, but will be getting the sky at ATT store).

 

[milan03]

NYC, Skyrocket HSPA+ . Note that AT&T's network here is 14.4mbps limited because they're using 16QAM. They never upgraded to 64QAM which is the most important ingredient for 21mpbs speeds.

 

[netarc]

I find myself wondering why the skyrocket would be so much faster than the GS2, on the same (non-LTE) network.

BTW, fwiw the phone I was playing w/in the store had it's APN settings set to some weird "PTA" string, which wouldn't even allow internet connection. I changed it to the APN settings here, and suddenly it worked great.

 

[milan03]

I find myself wondering why the skyrocket would be so much faster than the GS2, on the same (non-LTE) network.

BTW, fwiw the phone I was playing w/in the store had it's APN settings set to some weird "PTA" string, which wouldn't even allow internet connection. I changed it to the APN settings here, and suddenly it worked great.

All Skyrockets ship with PTA. It works fine on my unit, although during the peak hours in NYC I'm having data dropouts.

 

[netarc]

Thought I'd report back after having had the sky for ~4 days ... I've found that the handful of speakeasy speedtest trials I've run in SF are generally twice as fast (!) as they were on the GS2. e.g., at my place I would typically see ~2Mbps download (occasionally approaching 3) on the GS2, but with the sky I'm seeing 3.5Mbps+. In another area it hit 8Mbps, whereas if memory serves the GS2 was in the 4-5 range.

Note that this is HPSA+, SF is not (yet?) an LTE area.

 

[netarc]

Thought I'd report back after having had the sky for ~4 days ... I've found that the handful of speakeasy speedtest trials I've run in SF are generally twice as fast (!) as they were on the GS2. e.g., at my place I would typically see ~2Mbps download (occasionally approaching 3) on the GS2, but with the sky I'm seeing 3.5Mbps+. In another area it hit 8Mbps, whereas if memory serves the GS2 was in the 4-5 range.

Note that this is HPSA+, SF is not (yet?) an LTE area.

oh, btw this is with the default PTA APN config; I had tried the alternate "phone" config for a bit, but the MMS issues forced me to return to the default config.

 

[DataHawg]

That's darn good. With 3g speeds like that who needs LTE? Especially when you consider if you had LTE in your area, you can't toggle it off with the SR and your battery life would suffer. You're better off with hspa+ unless you get the ability to toggle LTE off IMO.

 

[maskedcarrot]

I'm quite happy w/the GS2, but the one, significant pain point of that phone is the terrible VVM via AT&T Messages app. In the last week I've had at least 3 messages that were never delivered by the app (i.e., dialing in to the system I could play them, but the never arrived at the phone), and a few that came down hours later than when they were left. Oddly, whenever I do a test call to my phone and leave vm, the VM comes down quick and w/o issue ... go figure.

Anyway, since I use my phone primarily for my business, unreliable voicemail is a deal-breaker.

I've heard that the VVM on the skyrocket is much smoother, which is why I'm going to be trading in my GS2 tomorrow (a mere 4 days b4 the 30day return period!) and trying out the skyrocket. I'm hoping that the 30 day return period will recommence with my skyrocket purchase (fwiw, I got the GS2 from radio shack, but will be getting the sky at ATT store).

Just goto youmail.com and set up a free account and download the app for Visual Voicemail. Works great. I've been using it for awhile.

AT&T has no excuse for not having Visual Voicemail native on all android phones. They are the only major company which doesn't offer VV on android. Just putting it on their 2 LTE devices is a kick in the face to all the other customers.

 

[Dranakin]

I get about 4-5Mbps in Oakland and Sacramento.

 

[canaah]

NYC, Skyrocket HSPA+ . Note that AT&T's network here is 14.4mbps limited because they're using 16QAM. They never upgraded to 64QAM which is the most important ingredient for 21mpbs speeds.

Click to view quoted image

those are really fast speeds for NYC. I had an Infuse 4g when I was up there and I never got over 10mb. Not to mention ATT is going to be rolling out LTE in NYC very soon.