4G service on T-mobile?

[tk421storm]

Hello all -

Has anyone been able to figure out if it's true that this phone will only work at 2G speeds on t-mobile? According to the google play store page, the frequency bands are:

3G (850, 1900, 2100 MHz)
4G LTE (700 MHz, AWS)

while a t-mobile reseller told me that t-mobile only works on 1700mhz.

The HTC dev edition has different frequencies:

HSPA/WCDMA: 850/1900/2100 MHz
GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
LTE: 700/850/AWS/1900 MHz (US)

It would be a real bummer if this phone really only worked on AT&T. I can't figure out why there would be fewer frequencies available on an unlocked phone.

 

[tambeb]

I actually just got my phone on Wednesday and ported over to T-Mobile from Verizon (whose LTE in Manhattan on weekdays around where I work consistently clocks in BELOW 0.5 Mbps for about a year now, and the same with their 3G so I couldn't even force my phone onto that for better service). I had the same concerns with the frequencies but didn't want to go to AT&T, but after I read that my area (live in NJ, work in NYC) was one of the "modernized" ones listed here (Network Evolution | T-Mobile Support) I decided to give T-Mobile a shot. I'm happy with the service overall, but I guess since their coverage maybe isn't as robust (or they don't penetrate buildings as well) I do bounce around a little between LTE, HSPA+ and 3G, and even EDGE when I'm deep inside a building. But I'm totally OK with that since even their EDGE is faster and more responsive than Verizon's LTE often was. And when I'm on their LTE I usually get speeds comfortably in the teens in Mbps.

But in case anyone was curious about my Verizon issues, it definitely was their network being clogged. I work some Sundays and when I would speed test then I would get speeds as high as 25 Mbps.

 

[tk421storm]

Considering I also live in NJ and work in NY, I couldn't ask for a better answer That definitely allays some of my fears.

If you dig around the google website some more, you'll find a help page that lists different specs for the HTC one:

GSM: 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

HSPA+: 2100/1900/850 MHz (Bands: 1/2/5)

LTE: 700/1700 MHz (Bands: 17/4)

Seems like it should work fine on the new 4G network t-mobile is rolling out. Thanks!

 

[i01111000]

DO NOT GET T-MOBILE!!!!

They do not support 4G in unlocked phones. you're stuck on Edge and below.
Let my $85 mistake pay for all of your salvations.

It was proposed by a sales rep today that maybe I was stuck on "E" because the phone is unlocked but they were only 95% sure. After switching sim cards they were 100% sure I was not. I called customer care and after pressing 0 several times to get a human the woman on the phone confirmed that they do not offer 4G connectivity to unlocked devices.

So now my shiny new HTC ONE GPE is sequestered to WiFi until I go to AT&T. I'm calling them ahead to make sure they don't have the same policy

 

[tambeb]

I'm on T-Mobile LTE right now on my One Google Play Edition, and have been since I got it on Wednesday.

 

[i01111000]

PSA: Google Play Edition HTC One And Samsung Galaxy S4 Ship From U.S. Play Store Today

according to this article if t mobile in your area uses reworked at&t towers you can connect act higher speeds but it's "sticky".



it's also entirely possible that the entire T-Mobile corporation is conspiring against me and only me in an effort to cheat me out of faster browsing speeds.

 

[bmolloy]

I will be getting my One GE today, but from experience I can say that T-Mobile is great where it is great and terrible everywhere else. I live in San Diego and all of the area down here seems to be moved over to the 1900 MHz for 3G and there is a ton Of LTE towers around too. If I get off the grid though, coverage suffers.

I have a nexus 4, which is super fast on T-Mobile 3G because it supports the 42MB/S HSPA+ they have on the 1700 band. I have an AT&T ONE X that I carrier unlocked and it gets 3G on the 1900 MHz band (it doesn't have 1700 bands) and it is a little slower 3G speeds because for now T-Mobile is has the 21 MB/S on the 1900 MHz band where it is active. The ONE X does support band 4 for LTE (the band T-Mobile has LTE on) and it is really fast with LTE speeds above 20 on T-Mobile.

I do not buy the T-Mobile not supporting unlocked phones at all. I have used unlocked iPhones and 4 different android phones with a $30 a month T-Mobile prepaid Sim card, I'm using it right now to type this on my Nexus 4. If you are not getting the speeds you want make sure you have the APN set correctly. There is an LTE APN for T-Mobile that you have to put in to get the LTE speeds.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[i01111000]

There are two available t mobile APNs on my phone:
fast.t-mobile.com
epc.t-mobile.com

there is also one named "tethering data" at pcweb.t-mobile.com

There is an article on cnet that mentions that HTC One can only get 3.5. Of course Cnet is not the final authority.

Bringing phones to T-Mobile's LTE network: The devil's in the details | Dialed In - CNET Blogs

 

[mackie99]

DO NOT GET T-MOBILE!!!!

They do not support 4G in unlocked phones...

That's not true. I'm using an unlocked Verizon iPhone 5 on T-mobile and 4G works just fine in my area (Riverside, CA).

 

[i01111000]

That's not true. I'm using an unlocked Verizon iPhone 5 on T-mobile and 4G works just fine in my area (Riverside, CA).

... This is the HTC One Google Edition sub thread. Apple's iPhone is not relevant.

"But the iPhone isn't the only smartphone people care about -- far from it. If you're planning to buy a hot unlocked global smartphone like, say, the HTC One model to run on T-Mobile LTE, you're out of luck as well. The AWS spectrum for LTE is limited to the U.S., so unless the device you intend to carry over to T-Mobile supports LTE band 4 (AWS), you'll be stuck on 3G/3.5G speeds. Well, I guess that's better than EDGE."

Read more: Bringing phones to T-Mobile's LTE network: The devil's in the details | Dialed In - CNET Blogs

 

[Mellimel22]

DO NOT GET T-MOBILE!!!!

They do not support 4G in unlocked phones. you're stuck on Edge and below.
Let my $85 mistake pay for all of your salvations.

It was proposed by a sales rep today that maybe I was stuck on "E" because the phone is unlocked but they were only 95% sure. After switching sim cards they were 100% sure I was not. I called customer care and after pressing 0 several times to get a human the woman on the phone confirmed that they do not offer 4G connectivity to unlocked devices.

So now my shiny new HTC ONE GPE is sequestered to WiFi until I go to AT&T. I'm calling them ahead to make sure they don't have the same policy

I'm on an unlocked att LG escape and as u can service have lte. Try again bro lol.

Sent from my T-mobile LG Escape using Tapatalk 2

 

[tk421storm]

As the initial poster of this thread, I have since signed up for T-Mobile and can confirm that the google Play edition unlocked HTC Pro does indeed use all available networks, including the new AWS they've been rolling out. I've been very happy with speed and coverage, and for only 50 bucks a month, it's pretty much unbeatable.

Keep in mind that t-mobile has not given its resellers permission to use the new spectrum yet, so you're better off sticking with the mothership until she starts selling the new frequencies to her MVNOs.

 

[21stNow]

As the initial poster of this thread, I have since signed up for T-Mobile and can confirm that the google Play edition unlocked HTC Pro does indeed use all available networks, including the new AWS they've been rolling out. I've been very happy with speed and coverage, and for only 50 bucks a month, it's pretty much unbeatable.

Keep in mind that t-mobile has not given its resellers permission to use the new spectrum yet, so you're better off sticking with the mothership until she starts selling the new frequencies to her MVNOs.

Clarification, it uses LTE on the AWS band, but not HSPA/+. The HTC One will only get HSPA/+ speeds on the 1900MHz band in areas where that band has been refarmed to those speeds. This is important because many people are not in an area that has LTE service active yet.

 

[tk421storm]

Yeah, I should specify that I'm in a new roll-out area (NYC-NJ), so I may not be a perfect test case. I think I'm getting HSPA, though, because my signal icon is "H" (it also intermittently lists "E", for edge, and "L" for LTE).

 

[21stNow]

Yeah, I should specify that I'm in a new roll-out area (NYC-NJ), so I may not be a perfect test case. I think I'm getting HSPA, though, because my signal icon is "H" (it also intermittently lists "E", for edge, and "L" for LTE).

Yes, if you are in a refarmed area, you should be getting HSPA/+ service on the 1900MHz band. Only your LTE service is coming from the AWS band.

 

[jprins68]

DO NOT GET T-MOBILE!!!!

They do not support 4G in unlocked phones. you're stuck on Edge and below.
Let my $85 mistake pay for all of your salvations.

It was proposed by a sales rep today that maybe I was stuck on "E" because the phone is unlocked but they were only 95% sure. After switching sim cards they were 100% sure I was not. I called customer care and after pressing 0 several times to get a human the woman on the phone confirmed that they do not offer 4G connectivity to unlocked devices.

So now my shiny new HTC ONE GPE is sequestered to WiFi until I go to AT&T. I'm calling them ahead to make sure they don't have the same policy

I am not sure that the sales rep really told you the whole story. I live in Denver and have used T-Mobile with Nexus 4 and the HTC One Google Play Edition, both unlocked phones, and have not been stuck on Edge. The Nexus 4 was able to connect to HSPA+ with 20+ Mbps speeds. My HTC One GPe has connected to various speeds from LTE (very fast until more people get on) to HSPA, to 3G, to Edge depending where in Denver I am.

Despite what the sales rep and customer care told you, the claim that you cannot get 4G speeds with an unlocked device is just not true. It is important to not spread this sort of mis-information to people who may be interested in these devices and T-Mobile's service.

 

[tambeb]

My HTC One GPe has connected to various speeds from LTE (very fast until more people get on) to HSPA, to 3G, to Edge depending where in Denver I am.

As I was saying earlier in this post, I'm the same way in NYC and NJ. The LTE is fantastic when I have it. Just this morning in midtown (on a busy weekday where my Verizon LTE would be <1) I got about 16.5Mbps down and 9.5 up. I'm sure this'll slow down as time goes on, but if it stays above 1 I'm still better off. The HSPA+ is very slow though in the city and areas immediately outside in NJ, but I've seen it run very fast at LTE speeds farther south towards the shore. I'm by no means a T-Mobile shill and only recently joined with my One GPE, but I was very frustrated with Verizon's overloaded network that hadn't shown any improvements for over a year and their continued, but no longer warranted, arrogance with insisting on "robust" testing of any new phones before allowing them onto the network (i.e., the HTC One). So when an underdog like T-Mobile is serving me better I think it's only fair to point it out.

 

[bmolloy]

An important note on this stuff: I have been using a T-Mobile Prepaid off and on for about 2 years now. I have a legacy AT&T unlimited account, but I am sure they will pull that rug out from under my feet at some point so I am always checking to see what my options are. I have nerded out on this stuff and done a lot of comparing.

T-Mobiles HSPA+ speeds are really fast when you get them off of their 1700 MHz band, they are theoretical 42MB/S. I regularly see low 20's with my Nexus 4.

The speeds are not as fast when you get them off of their re-farmed 1900 MHz band. (which is what this phone has access too) They are still fine, I just have never seen above a 5-6 MB download when using a phone that does not have the 1700 MHz band, even in an area that I get the high teens or low twenties on with the 1700 MHz band.

The good news is that T-Mobile seems to be kicking a$$ with their LTE deployment. At this point I am seeing it all over here in Southern California. Their deployment seems to be on more of a tower by tower basis than a city-wide deployment. I am assuming this is why they are not announcing cities as having service when they actually have pretty good coverage.

 

[bmolloy]

I just put the T-Mobile sim in my HTC One for the first time. I have not gone and checked anywhere else, but sitting here in my house I just got the best speeds I have seen on the 1900MHz network.

 

[rudyy50]

I, too, have an unlocked Google edition One on T-Mobile, and while there is certainly LTE in Sacramento, it seems that all of the carriers concentrate their LTE along highways and major thoroughfares. Looking at coverage area maps, that leaves tons of neighborhoods with crummy Edge.
In T-Mobile LTE areas, speeds are I'm the 20+ Mbps range. In the house I'm living in, coverage is spotty and frequently there is no data connection at all.
To its credit T-Mobile claims it is looking into the issue, but that's been 10 days and nothing has changed.
I'm on the T-Mobile prepaid $30 monthly, 100 minutes, unlimited text, unlimited data (with first 5 gigs on LTE). Next month I'll try the AT&T prepaid plan and see if it's any better.
At this point i don't recommend T-Mobile for LTE, but I'm going to move in the next 6 months and my search will depend exclusively by what my phone shows for LTE areas.
Sent from my Nexus 7 using AC Forums mobile app