Just got 4G

[rvrocket]

Boise ID and surrounding areas now have "4G" as of Friday. I did a speed test 3100 down and 512 up. Is this average? I thought it would be higher. Not complaining just wondering.

 

[Egidio]

Are you sure it's 4G? I'm in Austin, TX, and we don't have 4G yet. However, my download speed right now was 9,947 kbps and the upload was 1,897 kbps.

 

[rvrocket]

I was told by a friend (att rep) that it was up and running. But with your speeds I am betting not. Guess I will slap him on the back of the head the next time I see him.

 

[bconover93]

Yeah it's 3G w/ high upload speeds. I get 3.8 down, .33 up...max

3G obviously

Sent from my CM7 Backflip

 

[NMherron]

Are you sure it's 4G? I'm in Austin, TX, and we don't have 4G yet. However, my download speed right now was 9,947 kbps and the upload was 1,897 kbps.

If you are getting 9.9mb download, then you must be on HSPA+. AT&T is calling their HSPA+ and LTE as 4G. 9.9mb is slightly faster than Sprint's 4G service.

Their 3G technologies, HSPA and UMTS can never achieve anything higher than 3mb. And that is highly unusual. Their performance is typically in the 1mb to 1.5 mb maximum range.

However, AT&T probably did not update their phones to show HSPA+ with a 4G icon with the signal strength indicator. Or maybe you bought your phone before they decided to call HSPA+ a 4G technology?

 

[NMherron]

You can see on this Austin coverage map that AT&T is saying that 4G is deployed in Austin. The 4G they are referring to is HSPA+. The Samsung Infuse and Motorola Atrix do not run on 4G LTE, only HSPA+. So when LTE comes, you will have to buy a new LTE phone to use it.

The Boise area is not showing up on the HSPA+ map yet. So most likely you just have a really good HSPA signal (3G). But it's possible they have just started deploying HSPA+ in Boise and the coverage map hasn't been updated. And you could experience that kind of speed on HSPA+ if your signal is fair or poor, or if the tower you are getting service has limited backhaul.

You can download the Antennas app from the Android marketplace and it will show you which tower you are getting and what type of signal you are receiving (EDGE, UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+, LTE). That's what I use.

 

[Terrigno]

Are you sure it's 4G? I'm in Austin, TX, and we don't have 4G yet. However, my download speed right now was 9,947 kbps and the upload was 1,897 kbps.

Thats 9.9MB down and 1.8 up. With those speeds you dont need LTE. Thats true HSPA+ with the BackHaul I believe. Id like to see you take a snapshot of that if possible?

Also, your not connected to Wifi with those speeds right? lol

 

[Egidio]

Terrigno, do you mean take a picture of the screen showing the test result or just the screen itself? I could have been connected to wifi. I'll have to run the test again and make sure wifi is off.

All this talk about HSPA+ is very intriguing. Didn't AT&T announce 4G only in 5 markets earlier this month? I know Houston, Dallas and San Antonio were included, but not Austin. Anyway, from time to time I do see the H+ symbol showing on my Infuse screen. I'll download the Antenna app that NMherron suggested.

Thanks, guys!

 

[Scottyb]

I think it is stupid that the infuse shows h+ for 3g and "4g". I wish there was a tweak to change this to actually show what people are getting. This would limit confusion for people who don't understand what they are actually getting. For the most part everyone thay sees h+ right now is getting 3g, there are only a handfull of bigger cities with the "enhanced backhaul" needed for "4g". For me 4g wasn't even a factor in purchasing this phone because I knew I would never see it before it's upgrade time.

Sent from my Samsung Infuse using tapatalk

 

[Egidio]

Yup, the wifi connection was the reason for my high speed test. Here's a test I ran just now with wifi off. Quite a different number! ) The H+ does show. though.

 

[gtrmn]

Thats 9.9MB down and 1.8 up. With those speeds you dont need LTE. Thats true HSPA+ with the BackHaul I believe. Id like to see you take a snapshot of that if possible?

Also, your not connected to Wifi with those speeds right? lol

We're talking about Mb (megabits), not MB (megabytes). The difference is a factor of 8. It's a way service providers use terminology to make you think you're paying for a service much faster than you are.

 

[NMherron]

All this talk about HSPA+ is very intriguing. Didn't AT&T announce 4G only in 5 markets earlier this month? I know Houston, Dallas and San Antonio were included, but not Austin. Anyway, from time to time I do see the H+ symbol showing on my Infuse screen. I'll download the Antenna app that NMherron suggested.

Thanks, guys!

The problem here is that AT&T originally called HSPA+ a 3G technology, but then in January changed course and started referring to it as 4G (because T-Mobile did). So this leaves us with AT&T having two 4G technologies...and really making a lot of confusion.

But as you state, AT&T is rolling out 4G to 5 markets this summer. But what they are referring to is 4G LTE. AT&T already as 4G-HSPA+ rolled out to approx. 50 cities (including Austin).

AT&T should have not referred to HSPA+ as 4G. They only did it for marketing reasons. So people wouldn't abandon AT&T and move to competitors who claim to have 4G. This isn't a very big deal, except for the fact that there are a lot of people buying the Atrix and Infuse who think they are set for a few years with a 4G phone. But these devices won't run on LTE and AT&T users will have to upgrade their phones again to use LTE. This is really going to piss people off. And rightly so.

HSPA+ can be a very good 4G technology, if deployed right. For instance, T-Mobile is deploying their HSPA+ in dual carrier mode which allows them speeds up to 42mb. Standard HSPA+ is limited to 9mb. And most likely AT&T will throttle it's LTE speeds way down and be similar to T-Mobile's HSPA+ anyway. LTE is more efficient with spectrum though than dual-channel HSPA+. And this is the big reason AT&T is switching ponies right now. Their spectrum is overloaded.

 

[Egidio]

NMherron, your note is so helpful! Thanks for taking time to elaborate on that. Add me to the list of people who jumped ship from an iPhone to Infuse because of the 4G thing. I fell for it. Yes, I could still swap my Infuse to an iPhone, but I won't. The Infuse and the Android OS are much more satisfying to my personal needs. However, this misleading labeling is clearly not right. The funny thing is that when you look at the AT&T site, they show 4G stuck between HSPA+ and LTE.

 

[rvrocket]

You can see on this Austin coverage map that AT&T is saying that 4G is deployed in Austin. The 4G they are referring to is HSPA+. The Samsung Infuse and Motorola Atrix do not run on 4G LTE, only HSPA+. So when LTE comes, you will have to buy a new LTE phone to use it.

The Boise area is not showing up on the HSPA+ map yet. So most likely you just have a really good HSPA signal (3G). But it's possible they have just started deploying HSPA+ in Boise and the coverage map hasn't been updated. And you could experience that kind of speed on HSPA+ if your signal is fair or poor, or if the tower you are getting service has limited backhaul.

You can download the Antennas app from the Android marketplace and it will show you which tower you are getting and what type of signal you are receiving (EDGE, UMTS, HSPA, HSPA+, LTE). That's what I use.

Thanks for the info. I am downloading Antennas app.