4G slower than 3G in Houston

[rockyjay]

forgive me if this was already posted, but my search found nothing.

I'm in Houston, Texas and after running the Speed Test App on both 3G and 4G I found that 3G is faster. I realize that 4G does not have as widespread coverage as 3G, but I live in central Houston.

Has anyone else in Houston, or another city noticed this?

I'll post a screen shot once I figure out how to do that.

 

[xorg]

How many bars do you have?

Check clear.com maps... does it say you should have coverage?

Try this speedtest site as it does a larger sample. The speedtest apps do no use large samples...

Speakeasy - Speed Test

 

[Darth Mo]

A few people have noticed this all over.

The thought for now is that while 4G coverage is available, it's capacity isn't that high so it gets clogged up easily. I ran a test at 5 am and got 8.5 down. Just ran another one now and got 1.3 down, about the same as 3G. I guess time will tell.

At least you can get simultaneous voice and data though at 3G speeds.

EDIT: Ok, just ran it again and got 3.3 down on 4G. Decent.

 

[timlot]

I'm on the northwest Houston and I've been able to get around 3-3.5mb outside and around 2 indoors, but its hard to keep a 4g signal indoors.

 

[off]

I'm in West Houston, before Highway 6. With the speakeasy.net test, not the app but directly off the website, I'm getting:

4G

DL 3.1 Mbps
UL 1.1 Mbps

3G

DL 770 Kbps
UL 279 Kbps

 

[xorg]

Also try pluggin in a headphone as it might use as an antenna. The FM radio does, 4G might too.

I get 6Mbps more consistently with heaphones plugged in. Get 3-4Mbps more consistently with no headphones. Haven't done enough testing to conclude, but worth a shot.

Note the 4G icon and headphones plugged in...

 

[rockyjay]

I'm in West Houston, before Highway 6. With the speakeasy.net test, not the app but directly off the website, I'm getting:

4G

DL 3.1 Mbps
UL 1.1 Mbps

3G

DL 770 Kbps
UL 279 Kbps

well my results on the site are about the same as yours.
speakeasy.net 3G .95mb down
4G 3.98mb

I am excited about simultaneous voice and data, mainly for when I'm using GPS and get a call. I just have to remember to turn it on before I drive, since keeping it on kills the battery.

 

[JrD#AC]

I am excited about simultaneous voice and data, mainly for when I'm using GPS and get a call. I just have to remember to turn it on before I drive, since keeping it on kills the battery.

GPS and/or aGPS isn't 4G related. Both of my previous phones ran Sprint Nav/TeleNav, even if I got a phone call while it was running. One used Windows Mobile, the other used a proprietary Java platform.
But yeah, the simultaneous data/voice for multitasking should be nice, if I ever need to use it.

 

[rockyjay]

GPS and/or aGPS isn't 4G related. Both of my previous phones ran Sprint Nav/TeleNav, even if I got a phone call while it was running. One used Windows Mobile, the other used a proprietary Java platform.
But yeah, the simultaneous data/voice for multitasking should be nice, if I ever need to use it.

Well i wasn't speaking about GPS, I never lost a signal, but the maps would stop loading after being on a long call.

 

[Eric1987]

Yeah my 4g is slower out here too. Sometimes my 4g doesnt get above a 500kbps speed.

 

[Blubble#AC]

I'm in Sugar Land and have the following results

3G: about 1.5 Mbps down / 700k up

4G: from 2.3 to 2.7 Mbps down / 1.0 to 1.2 Mbps up.

 

[Raf]

This is bull. I'm in Houston and 4G is spotty at best.....rarely. Most of the time it's non-existent for me. How is it that the outskirts of Houston get far better 4G coverage than an actual large city? That makes no sense to me. I've gone into Pasadena, inside an apartment and 4G was strong meanwhile in Houston, both at my residence and at work in downtown right next to a window a 4G signal can't be found.

 

[jthapar]

In the Med center...inside 1-story building 4G signal strength is Poor if any at all. (4 of 6 bars and none over the 4G symbol)

 

[cedricmordrin]

I don't have the numbers in front of me, but in Conroe I was getting roughly twice the objective speeds, but due to the much lower latency on the 4G network the subjective speeds were closer to 5-6 times faster. And that was with 1 'bar' of 4G.

Edit:
This weekend I will be in the Pearland, Clear Lake, South Houston area and will be checking and testing the service. I hope it's good.

 

[dsw10482]

clear lake has weak 4g, i live in league city, there is none there, i work near hobby and have great 4g coverage at work

 

[kidfaces]

I live and work in Deer Park and get a 4G signal so randomly that I just turned it off. I was waiting to see if it worked better downtown this weekend but apparently it doesn't per these replies. Oh well, I didn't get this phone just for the 4G and hopefully it'll get better. I think it's funny though that if you check the 4G map on the Sprint website Houston and surrounding areas are ALL blue(covered)...like someone said before, that just means you CAN pick up a 4G signal, not that you WILL.

 

[Roadkillstewie]

....anyone notice lately that Comcast has been advertising 4G mobile broadband also?

I seriously doubt that Comcast has put up their own 'towers', it's likely Sprint, Comcast etc are all using the same resources.. then if you consider population density we can start seeing a possible reasoning on why some areas get better performance with others.

 

[Raf]

....anyone notice lately that Comcast has been advertising 4G mobile broadband also?

I seriously doubt that Comcast has put up their own 'towers', it's likely Sprint, Comcast etc are all using the same resources.. then if you consider population density we can start seeing a possible reasoning on why some areas get better performance with others.

That isn't good. That was a concern I posted in another thread, the density issue for such a large and populated city.

 

[Saepak]

Down here in Alvin, I have to sit on my patio to get a good fair 4G signal. Speeds are okay, but they compare very similar to the speeds on the 3G network. So I turned on my wireless. Running the RvU custom Rom so it has been left on for the past 7hrs with wifi and only at 55% several calls, downloads and installs of apps, internet browsing, down the line from there. signal for 4G is the same as before the Rom install.

actual test speeds for those wondering. just run.
3G: .71m D and .60m U
4G, in the apt: 1.47m D and .07m U - down is alittle better today, but damn does up suck
4G, on patio: 2.63m D and .68m U - Wow much better today.

Maybe this custom rom is helping.

 

[skrilla]

Report from Energy Corridor. Just got the phone today, new to Sprint.

4G 10 feet away from my window at work does not exist. Next to my window I was getting ~4.5 down and ~.6 up.

I'm shocked at how bad 4G performs indoors. Its pretty much useless to me.

No 4G at my house in Katy, 1-2 bars service. I love this phone, but the service seems to be horrid where I would use it most. I may return it within the 30 day trial if this is the best it can do.