Poor 3G but great LTE?

[burnout8488]

I connect to a single site in Owego, NY while at work, it is 3G/B25 LTE accepted.

 

Speeds on 3G are dismal, usually .2-.5Mbps. However, LTE seems completely unused - I regularly get 28Mbps down and 8Mbps up on this site.

 

Obviously, the backhaul is there. Will 3G ever improve on this site? Is this something a service ticket could fix, or can 3G be completely overloaded by other users despite having adequate backhaul?

[jamisonshaw125]

I connect to a single site in Owego, NY while at work, it is 3G/B25 LTE accepted.

 

Speeds on 3G are dismal, usually .2-.5Mbps. However, LTE seems completely unused - I regularly get 28Mbps down and 8Mbps up on this site.

 

Obviously, the backhaul is there. Will 3G ever improve on this site? Is this something a service ticket could fix, or can 3G be completely overloaded by other users despite having adequate backhaul?

3g should definitely improve in time, because less and less devices will need to be on it. With b41, b26 and b25...there really won't be a need for 3g eventually except for a fall back.

[COZisBack]

I connect to a single site in Owego, NY while at work, it is 3G/B25 LTE accepted.

 

Speeds on 3G are dismal, usually .2-.5Mbps. However, LTE seems completely unused - I regularly get 28Mbps down and 8Mbps up on this site.

 

Obviously, the backhaul is there. Will 3G ever improve on this site? Is this something a service ticket could fix, or can 3G be completely overloaded by other users despite having adequate backhaul?

 

Is your phone being dropped to 3G when it can't receive LTE or are you forcing it to 3G where you receive LTE? The reason I'm asking is, if your phone is dropping to 3G when the LTE signal drops, the quality of your 3G signal is deteriorating as well, which may be the reason you're seeing poor 3G performance.

 

The other possibility is similar to was jamisonshaw125 is talking about, if your signal is dropping to 3G in a populated area, others are probably dropping to 3G as well, which is crowding the 3G network.

 

There could also be other unknowns.

[burnout8488]

3g should definitely improve in time, because less and less devices will need to be on it. With b41, b26 and b25...there really won't be a need for 3g eventually except for a fall back.

 

That's what's confusing me. Even if all of the users in Owego have an old single band LTE device, they'd still be on B25 LTE which has totally adequate numbers right now. Is it possible that this town is just full of 3G phones, or everyone is deep indoors and can't grab LTE?

 

Maybe you're right and B26 will alleviate hundreds of the 3G campers indoors.

[burnout8488]

Is your phone being dropped to 3G when it can't receive LTE or are you forcing it to 3G where you receive LTE? The reason I'm asking is, if your phone is dropping to 3G when the LTE signal drops, the quality of your 3G signal is deteriorating as well, which may be the reason you're seeing poor 3G performance.

 

The other possibility is similar to was jamisonshaw125 is talking about, if your signal is dropping to 3G in a populated area, others are probably dropping to 3G as well, which is crowding the 3G network.

 

There could also be other unknowns.

I only drop to 3G when it makes sense - i.e. deep in the building or when I'm far away from the site. I usually have good B25 indoor coverage here though, sitting at -100dBm at my desk right now.

 

If I manually force it to 3G outdoors, I get a -46 eHRPD signal! But the speed is still awful.

[COZisBack]

I only drop to 3G when it makes sense - i.e. deep in the building or when I'm far away from the site. I usually have good B25 indoor coverage here though, sitting at -100dBm at my desk right now.

 

If I manually force it to 3G outdoors, I get a -46 eHRPD signal! But the speed is still awful.

 

Definitely connecting to the same site on both?

[burnout8488]

Definitely connecting to the same site on both?

 

Yup, I'm out of range of any other sites. I can see the tower from my office.

[COZisBack]

Yup, I'm out of range of any other sites. I can see the tower from my office.

 

I'm betting there are quite a few users stuck on 3G due to the buildings they're in in the area. Obviously I have no clue about your surrounding buildings, but that would make most sense to me.

[burnout8488]

I'm betting there are quite a few users stuck on 3G due to the buildings they're in in the area. Obviously I have no clue about your surrounding buildings, but that would make most sense to me.

Gotcha - thanks for the insight. In that case, B26 will be our savior when they get their little white truck here and pop the carrier card in. And I guess I really won't care about 3G performance at that point since I'll barely be on it.

[jamisonshaw125]

But you has b25 right? I would love to have b25, or even those 3g speeds in my apartment complex. I can't even stream music at my gym, and the "wifi" doesn't reach it either.  They probably have some archaic POS router.

[burnout8488]

But you has b25 right? I would love to have b25, or even those 3g speeds in my apartment complex. I can't even stream music at my gym, and the "wifi" doesn't reach it either.  They probably have some archaic POS router.

I haz it. Only in the outskirts of this building though. When I start walking down hallways, or to the cafeteria, it drops and the phone is somewhat unusable at times.

 

I guess I'll consider myself lucky to even have these speeds at the moment - that sounds rough for you!

[jamisonshaw125]

I haz it. Only in the outskirts of this building though. When I start walking down hallways, or to the cafeteria, it drops and the phone is somewhat unusable at times.

 

I guess I'll consider myself lucky to even have these speeds at the moment - that sounds rough for you!

If it wasn't for wifi, I would loose my damn mind. And fortunately I have an iPhone so my messages actually go through. Sometimes my texts don't send, or say they don't send but actually send like 3 times. It's a hard life living on the fringe zone. lol

[darickster09]

Perhaps try lte only mode if you keep dropping t 3g?

[burnout8488]

Perhaps try lte only mode if you keep dropping t 3g?

I've got no issues with LTE dropping - it drops to 3G when the signal degrades further indoors, the way it should be.

[dnicekid]

That's very common around here as well. The only place I have gotten 2-3 on 3g was outside of Boston. My 3g is slo, barely usable but its pretty much LTE or bust for now.

[Paynefanbro]

When I was in Boston, I intentionally put my phone on 3G and ran a speed test and got speeds of nearly 1.8Mbps. LTE was 8-15Mbps. My guess is that one cities have more LTE device market penetration than others and as a result, 3G will remain poor but LTE will be great.

 

The opposite is the case in NYC. Band 25 is crowded so badly that 3G often has the same speeds or faster than LTE. If it weren't for Band 41 Sprint would look bad here in some neighborhoods. In others LTE and 3G are balanced so perfectly where 3G is over 1.2Mbps with pings of less than 75ms and LTE is 12-15Mbps with pings in the 40's.

[S4GRU]

VZW 3G has gotten so bad. It is unusable in many areas anymore. It appears VZW has completely stopped capex on 3G now. If you mention it to any VZW employee they try to hard sell you on a LTE device. When you explain you have one, they look at you like you're from Mars. "Why would you use 3G?" They always ask.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

[jamisonshaw125]

VZW 3G has gotten so bad. It is unusable in many areas anymore. It appears VZW has completely stopped capex on 3G now. If you mention it to any VZW employee they try to hard sell you on a LTE device. When you explain you have one, they look at you like you're from Mars. "Why would you use 3G?" They always ask.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

In the next few years, teenyboppers will look startled when you say 3g, because they will have no idea what it means.

[CaryTheLabelGuy]

VZW 3G has gotten so bad. It is unusable in many areas anymore. It appears VZW has completely stopped capex on 3G now. If you mention it to any VZW employee they try to hard sell you on a LTE device. When you explain you have one, they look at you like you're from Mars. "Why would you use 3G?" They always ask.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

Yeah, it is way worse than Sprint's EVDO. But, you never hear anybody really complaining about it. Verizon's EVDO is now about as bad as Legacy Sprint EVDO and in some places completely dead.

 

Post NV, my EVDO speeds/pings are terrific, even though I rarely see it now that I have a G3.

 

Sent from my LG G3 using Tapatalk

[burnout8488]

At my old place of work, it was a few miles down the highway from where I am now. Ground mount NV conversion, 3G accepted, no LTE. I would hit 2.7Mbps all day on 3G and could do everything just fine. YouTube, Netflix, Hulu, you name it. It was probably very underutilized. And I would get these speeds with a -100 eHRPD signal too, pretty far away.

 

The population covered by this site in Owego must be a whole lot more despite having tons more backhaul hooked up, for the 3G to be this bad. Maybe it's everyone on Boost and Virgin mobile clogging it up.

[bigzeto]

Yeah, it is way worse than Sprint's EVDO. But, you never hear anybody really complaining about it. Verizon's EVDO is now about as bad as Legacy Sprint EVDO and in some places completely dead.

 

Post NV, my EVDO speeds/pings are terrific, even though I rarely see it now that I have a G3.

 

Sent from my LG G3 using Tapatalk

 

Wish that was the case in Baton Rouge.  Verizon 3G doesn't hit 2+ anymore, but it's still at a very respectable 1-2 Mbps here.  Sprint EVDO is still abysmal in Baton Rouge, often times resulting in zero throughput on NV accepted sites.  I tried Tmo on the 1 week test run, and their speeds are fantastic when you are on LTE or HSPA, but they need more cell sites in the metro area like Sprint.  They also don't even have a cell site in the immediate downtown area.  So unfortunately, it's either ATT or Verizon here if you want a reliable cell phone experience.  Truly a bummer.

[gusherb]

It took two years for EVDO to finally start clearing up around here, actually it coincided with the band 26 deployment. I imagine there are just enough tri-band devices connecting to B26 instead of EVDO now to relieve the congestion on EVDO. Now if I wanted to I can turn off LTE and not have my phone become a brick in more crowded places.

[S4GRU]

I expect that Masa will start pulling 3G capex when LTE coverage becomes ubiquitous.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

[CaryTheLabelGuy]

Wish that was the case in Baton Rouge. Verizon 3G doesn't hit 2+ anymore, but it's still at a very respectable 1-2 Mbps here. Sprint EVDO is still abysmal in Baton Rouge, often times resulting in zero throughput on NV accepted sites. I tried Tmo on the 1 week test run, and their speeds are fantastic when you are on LTE or HSPA, but they need more cell sites in the metro area like Sprint. They also don't even have a cell site in the immediate downtown area. So unfortunately, it's either ATT or Verizon here if you want a reliable cell phone experience. Truly a bummer.

Yeah, Baton Rouge is exceptionally terrible for Sprint.

 

Sent from my LG G3 using Tapatalk

[bretton88]

VZW 3G has gotten so bad. It is unusable in many areas anymore. It appears VZW has completely stopped capex on 3G now. If you mention it to any VZW employee they try to hard sell you on a LTE device. When you explain you have one, they look at you like you're from Mars. "Why would you use 3G?" They always ask.

 

Robert via Samsung Note 8.0 using Tapatalk Pro

I have a Verizon work phone, I used to fall back on its 3g for music streaming and basic browsing when Sprint's 3g was useless. But now Verizon's 3g has basically become useless here.