3G performance issues lately (dunno if I buy sprint's response)

[PM-Performance]

When I first got me Evo this thing cruised on 3G. In horrible areas I barely saw below 1M.

Lately it has been getting 500K if lucky.
Starting last night it struggles to get 50kb.
4G cruises as it did, but 3G is soo poor!!!!

I tried in a few diff areas like 40 miles apart and mostly slow as stated. I saw a couple quick spurts this morning of over 1MB and I got excited again, but didnt last long.

I finally called a local Sprint store because customer service is useless. They tried to tell me that maybe due to putting up more 4G towers that the 3G towers were coming down and maybe maxing out the remaining up 3G towers while this work was being done?

WTF????? arent the 3G and 4G on totally seperate infrastructures all in all? Why would they need to take down/affect 3G service to update already running 4G service in the same area?

Am I miss understanding how the towers work? Or are they feeding me BS as I think they are?

maxing the towers is one thing and i can partially buy that, but the rest sounds like BS to me

 

[Braaainz]

How much data have you been using?

Prior to the Evo, I had Sprint's unlimited phone as modem. I noticed when I was especially data hungry in a month, my 3g speed would be throttle back for the remainder of the month. Maybe Sprint is doing something similar to you. I kinda doubt it because I've been a real data hog on my Evo, and haven't had it go slow at all (then again, I'm also paying the $30 hotspot fee so maybe I'm exempted from throttling)

 

[PM-Performance]

I havent touched 1GB yet at all.
So far this month Im at 82MB.
Its inconsistant as hell so maybe all the towers all over here are hit hard cuz everyone using mad data right now cuz of the Evos. I dunno. . . . .
isnt that what happened with ATT once Iphonez came out?

 

[Runningwarrior08]

Hmm the only thing I can think of is the towers being maxed out like you stated. In northwest Indiana, even with 1 bar 3g I get at least 1mbps on 4g when in Chicago i get close to 6mbps with only 2 bars.

 

[PM-Performance]

that i can remotely believe.. . . .when i first got the phone lowest i ever saw was like 1MB. Even in areas where the map showed no 3G I still got min 500kb.
Both areas I tried were 4G areas so very likely a ton of evos are around here hogging data .

 

[sniffs]

Try to update your PRL file.. on Verizon this is done by dialing *228 and pressing 2.

On the EVO it's in the menu system, Settings, and I think About phone and hten update PRL or something like that.

PRL is the file that stores all the tower info, it's called Preferred Roaming List..perhaps it's hosed?

 

[AaronTV]

I guess it's all relative. My average 3G speeds since Evo launch have been in the 400-600k range. I only rarely see speed at or above 1 mbs.

 

[tpdtopcop#AC]

Since updating to 2.2 ota my 3g speeds are half of what they were with 2.1. My upload speeds are faster then my download speeds.

 

[rem_kujawa]

Mine seems the same speed, but I don't see as much signal drops to one bar as before.

 

[R32_Rocky]

Same here in Irving, Texas, just SW of Dallas. Suddenly speed dropped by half. But this started even before the OTA Froyo update.

 

[volwrath]

Here in Nashviile, I have seen two different things at work. 1) PRL 60669 destroyed the speed I was getting from the PRL my EVO came with (60662). A call to sprint got me a msl and factory reset which fixed that issue. 2) Froyo has cut my speeds down from well over 1mbps to 6-700kbps.

I am tempted to go back to 2.1 for the insane 3G speeds

 

[kd0axs]

Seems to be working good here around the Twin Cities. I usually get between 1 and 1.5mbps. When I had my Pre, I usually got around 600-800kbps so the Evo is definitely working better on 3G than my Pre ever did.

 

[Cliffs71]

I've noticed that not only have my 3G speeds been very erratic (anywhere from .12Mbps down/.09Mbps up to 2.23Mbps down/.74Mbps up on both my EVO and my Overdrive hotspot, so I know it's not just the phone or 2.2), but my voice service has been seriously messed up the past week or so with lots of people telling me that I'm breaking up (even when it appears I have 4-6 bars). Gonna place a call to Sprint, because I'm getting tired of the spotty reception lately.

 

[bubbatex]

I noticed a drop too in the past week (maybe after 2.2 even more??) and I did both a PRL and Profile update and it seems to be much better - or back to normal.

 

[PM-Performance]

PRL didnt appear to do too much for me.
I had to connect to wifi last night to update 2 pics to facebook. Any other time over the network it literally takes seconds.
Speeds on speedtest are still shotty

Now dropping calls too and signal is roaming in my basement or not showing at all when i had like 3 bars down here before.

 

[Primetimeplaya]

I actually have times when 3G is running fine and then the connection totally disappears and comes back a couple mins later. The phone isn't moving this whole time.

 

[Cliffs71]

I actually have times when 3G is running fine and then the connection totally disappears and comes back a couple mins later. The phone isn't moving this whole time.

Yup... Same here. It's also almost like the EVO is now having similar problems as the iPhone 4. When talking to my wife yesterday, I kept breaking up and she couldn't hear me. When I set the phone down and turned on the Bluetooth, no more issues. With the phone on the table, I got 5-6 bars. Bringing the phone to my ear dropped it down to 1-2 bars and I'm using a full case on the phone. I was also having a terrible time getting it to lock onto the WiFi router last night. So I was having all kinds of trouble maintaining Wifi AND 3G and kept having to manually toggle 3G and WiFi on and off. Very frustrating.

I wonder if the lack of strong signal lately is the reason why some people are suddenly having much worse battery performance?

 

[Primetimeplaya]

Yup... Same here. It's also almost like the EVO is now having similar problems as the iPhone 4. When talking to my wife yesterday, I kept breaking up and she couldn't hear me. When I set the phone down and turned on the Bluetooth, no more issues. With the phone on the table, I got 5-6 bars. Bringing the phone to my ear dropped it down to 1-2 bars and I'm using a full case on the phone. I was also having a terrible time getting it to lock onto the WiFi router last night. So I was having all kinds of trouble maintaining Wifi AND 3G and kept having to manually toggle 3G and WiFi on and off. Very frustrating.

I wonder if the lack of strong signal lately is the reason why some people are suddenly having much worse battery performance?

I'm sure that if the phone has to search harder for a signal that this is pulling more juice than necessary out of the battery.

 

[Cliffs71]

I'm sure that if the phone has to search harder for a signal that this is pulling more juice than necessary out of the battery.

Which would perhaps mean that potential network/phone problems are more widespread than just you or I.

 

[skife]

apparently we've had solar flares the last week or so thats been affecting service with phones.