Indicative of true EVDO speeds?

[dequardo]

I recently signed up w/Sprint with an iPhone 5 in a non LTE market. Suffice to say the data speeds have been abysmal at best. Average .2mbps down and .1mbps up. This in both my workplace, home and at various other locations in the Milwaukee area. Outdoors of course the speeds are better though never much better than .5 and .3 respectively.

 

According to Sprint maps I'm in the strongest 3G areas by shading. I did contact tech support who did a great job trying to solve this (pushed a different PRL to my device) and I was told the closest tower was less than a mile away.

 

My question is...is this typical for indoor speeds for the 1900mHz band?

 

Note I have compared an iPhone 5 running Straight Talk's (VZW, 3G) towers in the identical areas and that throughput is order of magnitude better. average over 1.0 mpbs up and .5 down.

 

Advice appreciated. thx

Edited April 2, 2013 by dequardo

[miguell2]

My understanding is that generally with sprint the issue of speed is more a backhaul issue rather than a coverage issue. So their internet pipe coming from the internet to the tower is not fast enough to service the number of users of the tower at really fast speeds to everyone gets pretty slow speeds. NV is meant to resolve that in part by adding better backhaul (faster pipe) and more efficient Tx/Rx equipment so coverage is improved. Anyone, please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Boosted20V]

EVDO maintians speed well into fringe signal. The issue is capacity, not the spectrum band.

[miguell2]

EVDO maintians speed well into fringe signal. The issue is capacity, not the spectrum band.

 

I have heard that before but how is that electrically possible? As signal degrades, doesn't it loose quality and as such wouldn't you loose data, lowering throughput?

[Mobilesolutions]

I recently signed up w/Sprint with an iPhone 5 in a non LTE market. Suffice to say the data speeds have been abysmal at best. Average .2mbps down and .1mbps up. This in both my workplace, home and at various other locations in the Milwaukee area. Outdoors of course the speeds are better though never much better than .5 and .3 respectively.

 

According to Sprint maps I'm in the strongest 3G areas by shading. I did contact tech support who did a great job trying to solve this (pushed a different PRL to my device) and I was told the closest tower was less than a mile away.

 

My question is...is this typical for indoor speeds for the 1900mHz band?

 

Note I have compared an iPhone 5 running Straight Talk's (VZW, 3G) towers in the identical areas and that throughput is order of magnitude better. average over 1.0 mpbs up and .5 down.

 

Advice appreciated. thx

 

 

 

More or less 1900mhz can penetrate buildings and I've had very acceptable data performance without line of sight. However the root of your problem is that in non upgraded areas everyone's performance is slow because the sites are over capacity and the network is unable to handle the amount of requests at a given time. The legacy network was designed in a day when data usage meant checking emails, today we have very heavy data intensive apps and it has seriously hurt these old towers. If you have no signal or low low signal at home you could check into getting an airave from Sprint, also I'd check the market section to see when you're area begins NV.

[dequardo]

Well Milwaukee is in the nebulous '2013' timeframe....

 

I should mention that I do get good signal strength in most all indoor areas; ~ -90dBm. Never quite sure if that's indicative of voice, data or both...

[WiWavelength]

My question is...is this typical for indoor speeds for the 1900mHz band?

 

Note I have compared an iPhone 5 running Straight Talk's (VZW, 3G) towers in the identical areas and that throughput is order of magnitude better. average over 1.0 mpbs up and .5 down.

 

In the Milwaukee market, VZW CDMA1X/EV-DO is PCS 1900 MHz only. So, VZW is no different from Sprint in that regard.

 

AJ

[S4GRU]

EVDO loses throughput speed/performance at a slower rate than most technologies with signal degradation. At 90% signal loss, EVDO still can meet 75% of it's performance characteristics. After 90%, it drops significantly.

 

The issue with Sprint EVDO performance is mostly related to capacity with each individual sector being exceeded and/or backhaul capability is being exceeded.

 

If you are getting better performance outside, it is easy to conclude it's because the signal is better. But you may be connecting to a different site, different channel or different sector when you go outside. The only time going outside will make a huge difference on EVDO is if your signal inside is very poor (like -100dBm or worse).

 

Robert via Nexus 7 with Tapatalk HD

[dequardo]

In the Milwaukee market, VZW CDMA1X/EV-DO is PCS 1900 MHz only. So, VZW is no different from Sprint in that regard.

 

AJ

 

Odd then as I see signficantly better signal strength (-61dBm) and data speeds on Straight Talk's iPhone 5 running on VZW towers.

[bigzeto]

Odd then as I see signficantly better signal strength (-61dBm) and data speeds on Straight Talk's iPhone 5 running on VZW towers.

 

If that is the case all around the areas you've traveled in your marekt, Verizon likely has more cell sites in your area.

[WiWavelength]

Odd then as I see signficantly better signal strength (-61dBm) and data speeds on Straight Talk's iPhone 5 running on VZW towers.

 

Yep, the Cellular 850 MHz carriers in Milwaukee are USCC and AT&T, not VZW. And I am sure that VZW does not have a stronger signal everywhere you go; rather, VZW just happens to have a closer site in at least one location that you frequent.

 

Also, if you are comparing the iPhone 5 on Straight Talk to the Galaxy S3 on Sprint, that is an apples to oranges comparison. Recent vintage iPhones are known for their freakishly good RF capabilities.

 

Oh, one last thing, the iPhone 5 on Straight Talk does not have access to VZW LTE 750, correct?

 

AJ

[dequardo]

No. I'm strictly comparing the Sprint iPhone 5 to ST iPhone 5.

 

The ST iPhone 5 has the exact same bands as an unlocked Verizon iPhone 5-LTE 750 included. LTE however is disabled on ST's iPhones.

Edited April 2, 2013 by dequardo

[Boosted20V]

No. I'm strictly comparing the Sprint iPhone 5 to ST iPhone 5.

 

The ST iPhone 5 has the exact same bands as an unlocked Verizon iPhone 5-LTE 750 included. LTE however is disabled on ST's iPhones.

 

Verizon clearly has sufficient backhaul/carriers in place while Sprint does not, yet.

[Deval]

I recently signed up w/Sprint with an iPhone 5 in a non LTE market. Suffice to say the data speeds have been abysmal at best. Average .2mbps down and .1mbps up. This in both my workplace, home and at various other locations in the Milwaukee area. Outdoors of course the speeds are better though never much better than .5 and .3 respectively.

 

According to Sprint maps I'm in the strongest 3G areas by shading. I did contact tech support who did a great job trying to solve this (pushed a different PRL to my device) and I was told the closest tower was less than a mile away.

 

My question is...is this typical for indoor speeds for the 1900mHz band?

 

Note I have compared an iPhone 5 running Straight Talk's (VZW, 3G) towers in the identical areas and that throughput is order of magnitude better. average over 1.0 mpbs up and .5 down.

 

Advice appreciated. thx

 

Short answer, the backhaul for the Sprint site is probably a T1 bundle, limited to very low maximum throughput. While the Verizon one probably has more backhaul in place (fiber or such). Eventually when Sprint upgrades the tower to the new Network Vision/LTE equipment, you'll see > 1.5mbps speeds.

 

Here is a sample screen shot of a Network Vision enabled site 3G EVDO speeds:

 

[Cubbiefan82]

U got to remember that verizon has lte in place in milwaukee, so faster backhaul. If I remember right, they have started nv in milwaukee with permits pulls starting a few months ago and a few bulids are in progess. U can't compare sprint to straight talk(aka verizon) right now, due to backhaul issue. I will say this, verizon may have first lte in a lot of places. But that is due to them just adding backhaul a new lte equipment in the base cabinet and new antenna. Sprint is replacing everything and with brand new equipment. Something verizon has just started to realize and is like oh shoot. We should have done it that way.

[ericdabbs]

Basically all of the major carriers besides Sprint have had all their towers upgraded to fiber/microwave backhaul prior tothem adding LTE. So adding LTE is a much quicker process throughout a market, hence faster release date times. Even Tmobile with their "Network Vision" of adding Antenna Integrated Radios (AIR) antennas has been much quicker to deploy due to having existing fiber/microwave backhaul in place.Obtaining proper fiber/microwave backhaul is a huge bottleneck, besidesthe whole permitting process, and has slowed down or halted numerous Sprint Network Vision sites from starting up or completing.

 

Sprint is using Network Vision to add LTE, improve 3G, replace base stations and add fiber/microwave backhaul to its network so the number of tasks that Sprint has to do for each site is at least 3x more than what other carriers have to do to simply add LTE.

[HawaiiD]

I recently signed up w/Sprint with an iPhone 5 in a non LTE market. Suffice to say the data speeds have been abysmal at best. Average .2mbps down and .1mbps up. This in both my workplace, home and at various other locations in the Milwaukee area. Outdoors of course the speeds are better though never much better than .5 and .3 respectively.

 

According to Sprint maps I'm in the strongest 3G areas by shading. I did contact tech support who did a great job trying to solve this (pushed a different PRL to my device) and I was told the closest tower was less than a mile away.

 

My question is...is this typical for indoor speeds for the 1900mHz band?

 

Note I have compared an iPhone 5 running Straight Talk's (VZW, 3G) towers in the identical areas and that throughput is order of magnitude better. average over 1.0 mpbs up and .5 down.

 

Advice appreciated. thx

 

Unless your area hasn't been upgraded with NV(network vision).

That's about what your speeds will be at for the time being.

 

Sent from my Coconut Wireless