Why does the HTC One misrepresent the data network type?

[grejj]

I've had my One for less than a week, and I'm enjoying it very much on the whole. Sprint's data coverage around my house is very poor. I'm well aware of this as a ten year Sprint customer and that fact in and of itself doesn't bother me much. I'm on wifi in my home, and if I'm out and about I'm doing more important things than playing on my phone. 3G is available and strong around my office, which is also fine. I don't expect to see 4G anytime soon here in Southeastern Ohio.

Here's my beef: my old phone, an HTC Arrive, and the phone I had prior to that, a Palm Pre, both told me straight up when I was on a 1x network rather than EvDo. The One does not. It says 3G regardless. I certainly don't consider 1x to be a third generation data protocol. When I see "3G" I think think Sweet! I can do some stuff. When it says "1x", I think twice. This is useful information to have.

Why, oh why, is "1x" being mislabeled "3G"? It's infuriating! Although now that I've realized this is going on, I just depend upon my memory of regions in Athens county to decipher what the data speed is.

 

[david279]

they been doing this for a while now. most custom roms bring back the 1x icon.

Posted from my HTC One via Android Central App

 

[grejj]

So it's an Android-on-Sprint thing? This is my first Android phone.

 

[david279]

This is a sprint thing

Posted from my HTC One via Android Central App

 

[thebizz]

It's a sprint thing I had The iPhone 5 and it did the same thing on sprint I don't know why they wouldn't want you too know when your on their 1x network especially since data is almost non existent on that network

 

[grejj]

My wife has an iPhone 4s, and it shows 1x as a small circle instead of saying "3G". Maybe Sprint are thinking that if they just pretend that their slowest data available is 3G, we'll all forget just how crappy their network really is? I can't think of any other reason.