Slow speeds on T-Mobile Prepaid

[tianh92]

Activated the prepaid card and put the sim card in my Nexus 4. I have full bars with the H icon, but my internet speed is sooo slow. Youtube buffers all the time and I am only getting 400kbps on speedtest.. Any ideas? Other than that I love this phone!

 

[yfan]

Have you owned other devices on T-mobile's network before? How does the speed compare? It is entirely possible for you to be in HSPA coverage and for it to be that slow. What does T-mobile's coverage map say about your data coverage? 3G? 4G?

 

[tianh92]

I have never owned other devices on T-mobiles network so I am just going off my previous iPhone on ATT much faster.. I just went to the coverage map and my house is definitely in an excellent coverage area.. I did log on My T-mobile and it says my phone is a motorolla v118 or something like that.. so I did change it to Nexus 4, hopefully that did the trick.

 

[tianh92]

No go Still super slow.. I dont get this. Now im getting between 100-500 kbps only at full signal with H icon. What gives.

 

[Citizen Coyote]

Odd. Have you checked your APN settings to see if you have a proxy set or something that might be interfering with Speed Test's results? Or, you could try visiting a speed test site in your browser and see if that makes any kind of a difference. Finally, go visit a T-Mobile store tomorrow and both test there and test on one of their phones. It may just be that T-Mobile is really congested or slow in your area.

 

[Jnorton2724]

I just went out and tried the a prepaid tmobile sim with 30$ plan and I'm getting horrible speeds. 0.2 Mbps down. No proxy set just the regular APN from tmobile.

 

[tianh92]

No proxy set here either.

 

[Jnorton2724]

Just checked coverage and my area is rated as excellent coverage. Lmao....well at least its prepaid.

 

[Jnorton2724]

Right outside my apartment building I'm getting 8 Mbps down here in San Diego. Gonna test it out for acouple weeks to see how the speeds and services are.

 

[N4Newbie]

If I recall correctly there are two $30 plans, one with 100 minutes voice and unlimited data (first 5 GB at full speed) and one with unlimited voice but very little data (10 MB, I think).

Are you sure you signed up for the correct plan? Sign in to My T-Mobile and check your plan and remaining data.

Your symptoms sound exactly like what my wife was seeing when she hit the 100 MB cap with the $50/month plan.

 

[N4Newbie]

PS: if you ARE on the correct plan, then your APN settings are probably at fault. T- Mobile has great online chat support; suggest you give it a try. Go to T-Mobile.com, click Contact Us at the bottom of the page and then look carefully for the Chat Now hyperlink (it can be hard to find).

 

[soma4society]

I'm on postpaid and have been encountering *really* sluggish speeds with Tmo around my home. As in, 100-500kbps download bad. I was beginning to think my phone had a faulty 3G/H+ radio, because WiFi works just fine, and when I switch to Edge, that works fine too. I called tmo and they tried pinging / refreshing the phone remotely (you may want to give this a try if you haven't already), but Nada. In my case, however, I think it's a tower issue. Because for the last few days I've been paying attention to 3g speeds away from home and they are much, much better for me elsewhere. Then when i get home things get iffy again. I'm going to call them back and take them up on their offer to put in for a service call to the cell tower.

PS, what I liked about this experience is the tmo rep didn't automatically assume there was something wrong with my phone. In fact he was quick to admit the tower may indeed need to be looked at. That's how you treat people, and how you keep customers

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums

 

[gone down south]

As drive around my neighborhood, I'm starting to figure out exactly where the TMobile towers are by the pattern of strong and weak signals!
Perfect at my house, great on the main road, drops to one bar of H on the side street, and absolutely no service in the driveway at the daycare as I drop my daughter off.

 

[minnemike]

Odd. Have you checked your APN settings to see if you have a proxy set or something that might be interfering with Speed Test's results? Or, you could try visiting a speed test site in your browser and see if that makes any kind of a difference. Finally, go visit a T-Mobile store tomorrow and both test there and test on one of their phones. It may just be that T-Mobile is really congested or slow in your area.

I can tell you that when I had tmobile set up my phone in their store, they retrieved a code from inside my phone for set up. Not sure this matters but if HSPA is supported in your area, then the only other factor would be APN settings.

 

[greydarrah]

I think you are either on the wrong plan, or need to tweak your APN settings. I'm on the $30 prepaid plan (never used TMo before) and I range between 8 and 16 Mgb download.

Regarding the plan, there are 2 $30 plans. The one with unlimited data (5gb at 4g speed) is only available to a newly activated SIM and can only be initiated via signing up on the web. If you called in to activate your SIM, they would have put you on the other $30 plan that has a bunch of talk minutes and very little data. This can be rectified via a call to TMo, but you have to speak to a supervisor...not the regular people that answer the phone (though they should be able to tell what type of plan you are on).

Regarding the APN settings, you can find what it should be here: How to set up the right APN on your Nexus 4 | Android Central
I remember reading some people saying that if you're having data problems, it's best to create a new APN, set it as the default and reboot the phone. I would try that, even if your current APN settings match the one recommended above.

 

[pitchersduel]

If I recall correctly there are two $30 plans, one with 100 minutes voice and unlimited data (first 5 GB at full speed) and one with unlimited voice but very little data (10 MB, I think).

Are you sure you signed up for the correct plan? Sign in to My T-Mobile and check your plan and remaining data.

Your symptoms sound exactly like what my wife was seeing when she hit the 100 MB cap with the $50/month plan.

not sure where else to post this...figured might as well do so here.

i plan on going with the 30 dollar plan with 100 minutes unlimited data/text. but i also saw this yesterday: T-Mobile testing new prepaid 'GoSmart' plan in select markets | Android Central

any worries that the 30 dollar pre paid plans avail now go away for the "gosmart" plans they will likely implement next year?


i certainly hope not...but it ran across my mind as i read that post.

 

[Citizen Coyote]

I have noticed in my few days with T-Mobile that signal strength can vary wildly, even within very short distances. At my neighbor's house I typically get two to three bars, but at home I only get one or two. No real problems, but I'm used to somewhat more consistent signal strength with Sprint.

 

[Jnorton2724]

I called T-Mobile and they said its probably a tower issue in my area. I get better speeds when I go outside a little be away from my place with 8 Mbps down so far. Gonna test it as I go around San Diego.

Yea I'm on the correct plan, 5GB data up to 4G speeds.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Android Central Forums

 

[slopokdave]

I don't think APN should have anything to do with it, unless you messed with it in the first place. Even the above link says you don't have to setup APN for T-Mobile or att. It should just work.

 

[loosecannon6]

I get between 15 and 20mb down on T-Mobile in new york