Nexus 4 with ATT (thoughts )

[Only1Z]

I wanted to point out how bad AT&T is in my area as compared to T-Mobile. I did a speedtest.net test on my Nexus 4 with a T-Mobile prepaid account and an AT&T iPhone 4S obviously with the simcard that it came with when I bought the phone at Radio Shack back in January. There is no APN to configure on the AT&T iPhone since it is locked to AT&T, the only carrier it is designed to run on. I get the same AT&T results when I use the AT&T sim in my Nexus 4 and configure the APN. I also get the same results using an AT&T data only sim in my Nexus 7. AT&T is just plain garbage in my area. They were rated the worst in speed and CS last year here in Colorado and the average speeds were about .5Mbps in that poll. As you see, things haven't gotten better. I also had a Verizon iPhone 4S that was just as bad as the current AT&T 4S that I have now. It was so bad, I broke my contract early and sold the iPhone back in January. I'm about to do the same with the AT&T 4S.

Both tests were run a few minutes apart in the same exact room in my house. Not sure why the N4 says I am in Bloomingdale but I get the same results when it picks a server here in Denver. It won't show me Denver in the change server screen. EDIT: Got Denver to show up by turning OFF GPS so I attached the screen cap also so there are three.

AT&T iPhone 4S screen cap and Nexus 4 screen cap using T-Mobile:

Your speed test app isn't working because of the APN settings...iPhone or not. My SIM card had default settings that did the same exact thing. Does it really feel like .1 Mbps down and 0 up? The app just isn't working. There is info about this all over the intraweb.

 

[anon(5719825)]

Your speed test app isn't working because of the APN settings...iPhone or not. My SIM card had default settings that did the same exact thing. Does it really feel like .1 Mbps down and 0 up? The app just isn't working. There is info about this all over the intraweb.

Yes, it really feels that slow and IS that slow. As I said, I got those same exact speeds on a AT&T data only sim in my Nexus 7. AT&T IS that slow in my area. Really, it IS That slow. The speedtest app can't be broken on a Nexus 4, Nexus 7 and every iPhone I have ever had.

I have pages that won't load and apps that won't work all the time giving the no network message. I know enough about phones and APN settings to know it's not those.

Over 9 minutes to download a 7MB song.

 

[Channan]

So I just got my T-Mobile SIM activation kit yesterday and I've been testing out the speeds around town on my Nexus 4.

Yesterday:

Today:

The rest of my family is on AT&T and they only get 2-5Mbps on HSPA+. Since the Nexus 4 doesn't have LTE you might be better off going with T-Mobile if they have good coverage in your area.

 

[wildmangk]

I'm on AT&T ( Like mentioned above I'd rather have broad coverage than fast speeds in limited locations) However, if Tmobile is good in your area then I would take advantage of that.

As far as AT&T, it took them awhile to figured out how to get me on the right data plan. For some reason when they would add the 4G Smart phone plan it would revert back to my basic Data for smart phone plan. The guy was very helpful and was able to set a dummy IMEI for a HTC lightning bolt and got me hooked up. I played around with several APN settings as well, but as of now I'm getting about 7mbs which isn't blazing but it works great for me. (Most of the time I'm on 35mbs wifi so I can't complain) If you like I could post my APN setting for you to check out.

My words of advice are be patient, out of the box mine was aggravating but very worth it in the end. I have all my issues hammered out and the phone is working great.

Could you post your APN settings please?????


Sent from my iPad Mini using Tapatalk

 

[Chad Middlesworth]

Make my Nexus 4 work with AT&T

Dont waste your time calling AT&T about your Google Nexus 4. AT&T wont help you. The policy is that they don't support non AT&T devices. If you change the APN settings (mahalo TY Smith!) to the settings below it should work. It worked for me. AT&T doesn't care about the IMEI. I now get 5mb down and 1mb up, its ok for most things. Before changing the APN settings my AT&T mobile network with my Nexus 4 was really bad and I could not run a speed test.

APN Settings:

Name: AT&T US HSPA+ (This doesn?t matter)
APN: pta
Proxy: Not set
Port: Not set
Username: Not set
Password: Not set
Server: Not set
MMSC: http://mmsc.mobile.att.net
MMS proxy: proxy.mobile.att.net
MMS port: 80
MCC: 310 (should be auto set to your country code)
MNC: 410 (should be auto set to your network code)
Authentication type: Not set
APN type: default,admin,fota,mms,supl,hipri
APN protocol: IPv4/IPv6
APN roaming protocol: IPv4/IPv6
Bearer: Unspecified

 

[fernandezhjr]

I had the 4G data plan. When my N4 was added it got switched to the smartphone personal plan, but I'm still getting the same speeds, 6-8 down and 1up with occasional peaks higher. I don't think successfully getting the other plan back would change anything for me.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[Google_Superuser]

This is semi-unrelated but I have/had an LTE plan sim with ATT. Obviously I am only getting hspa+ on the N4 but if I put the sim back in an LTE phone will it go back to the LTE plan and speeds?

 

[Chad Middlesworth]

I don't think the carrier plan is so important for performance. The device is not capable. Nobody seems to be getting really fast speeds with the N4 on ATT. 5-8 down and 1 up seems to be the average.

 

[NotDavidMeek]

Re: Make my Nexus 4 work with AT&T

Dont waste your time calling AT&T about your Google Nexus 4. AT&T wont help you. The policy is that they don't support non AT&T devices. If you change the APN settings (mahalo TY Smith!) to the settings below it should work. It worked for me. AT&T doesn't care about the IMEI. I now get 5mb down and 1mb up, its ok for most things. Before changing the APN settings my AT&T mobile network with my Nexus 4 was really bad and I could not run a speed test.

APN Settings:

Name: AT&T US HSPA+ (This doesn?t matter)
APN: pta
Proxy: Not set
Port: Not set
Username: Not set
Password: Not set
Server: Not set
MMSC: http://mmsc.mobile.att.net
MMS proxy: proxy.mobile.att.net
MMS port: 80
MCC: 310 (should be auto set to your country code)
MNC: 410 (should be auto set to your network code)
Authentication type: Not set
APN type: default,admin,fota,mms,supl,hipri
APN protocol: IPv4/IPv6
APN roaming protocol: IPv4/IPv6
Bearer: Unspecified

{Later Quote} I don't think the carrier plan is so important for performance. The device is not capable. Nobody seems to be getting really fast speeds with the N4 on ATT. 5-8 down and 1 up seems to be the average.

I wanted to follow up on all of this - in case anyone else was hesitating on modifying their APN settings (like I was) - don't wait. This was one of the key changes I made on my N4 as an AT&T subscriber. I wanted to share a few items, as well as ask a question or two. First, here is what I 'inherited' from AT&T as a default APN:

I looked at the APN settings from Chad's post above, and also found the settings from the xda-developers (referenced here: http://forums.androidcentral.com/google-nexus-4/229031-t-apn-settings-nexus-4-a.html). For the most part, the xda-developers settings agree with the items listed above, but I noted that Chad's list has two extra items in the 'APN Type': admin and fota. I wasn't sure if there was something special about those.

Finally, as to the speed results after changing my APN: before I changed, I was getting the "zero" download speeds on Speedtest. Now I am getting good speeds - and, in some cases, surprisingly good. Here is what I get at work - consistently in the 10-12 Mb/s down range.

However, at home is a different story. In my house, with wi-fi turned off, I get at best 3 Mb/s and at worse about 400 Kb/s. The earlier tests in the summary above were all at home.

So it's a good thing I have wi-fi available at home - I'd never be able to deal with those speeds (and that inconsistency). This is definite YMMV territory.