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Bad T-Mobile 3G in iPhone 4(NYC)

K

kipfilet

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 7, 2013
5
0
Hi everyone,

I recently unlocked an international iPhone 4 and am using it with a T-Mobile sim card in Manhattan. I used to have a T-Mobile Blackberry with 3G speeds most of the time. However, my iPhone seems to be stuck on Edge. I almost never see the 3G symbol and this only happens when I'm in the middle of the street or something. I find it really weird because I had 3G with the Blackberry most of the time. Is there anything I can do to improve this? Thanks in advance
 
Yup, welcome to T-Mobile. The king of lying. They had said that NYC is done ref arming, so iPhones have 3G everywhere, but that isn't true at all. Same thing with Boston. I can drive down the Comm Ave in Boston and keep switching between 4G and EDGE with my TMo sim in my Note 2. AT&T/VZW? LTE.
 
The iPhone 4 doesn't work on tmoible's aws 3G network so all you'll get is Edge speeds. Only way you'll get 3G speeds is if the area has been refarmed by tmobile and I don't know if NYC has been.
 
kipfilet said:
Hi everyone,

I recently unlocked an international iPhone 4 and am using it with a T-Mobile sim card in Manhattan. I used to have a T-Mobile Blackberry with 3G speeds most of the time. However, my iPhone seems to be stuck on Edge. I almost never see the 3G symbol and this only happens when I'm in the middle of the street or something. I find it really weird because I had 3G with the Blackberry most of the time. Is there anything I can do to improve this? Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

The iPhone is not officially supported by T-Mobile and won't be until the end of this week. As such the iPhone doesn't have the hardware needed to run on 3G on the dominate system under t-mobile which is 1700 MHz not the 1900 that AT&T etc use and is in the current iPhones. T-mobile is switching their systems over but it's far from complete. The majority of NYC is likely still on 1700 and so there is nothing you can do.
 
That refarming stuff is still pretty spotty right now and I wouldn't count it for reliable service until like the end of 2013. If you want a decent experience on an iPhone with Tmobile and have 3G everywhere like you used to get with your Blackberry then you need to get the iPhone 5 model they have coming out on Friday. It supports their larger AWS 3G network.
 
charlituna said:
The iPhone is not officially supported by T-Mobile and won't be until the end of this week. As such the iPhone doesn't have the hardware needed to run on 3G on the dominate system under t-mobile which is 1700 MHz not the 1900 that AT&T etc use and is in the current iPhones. T-mobile is switching their systems over but it's far from complete. The majority of NYC is likely still on 1700 and so there is nothing you can do.
Click to expand...

AT&T main 3G/4G is 850/1900/2100 not all 1900
 
Thank you for your kind replies.

Is there any way to keep track of the refarming? I just got this unlocked phone so I don't really feel like getting a new iPhone 5 now. Does ATT offer competitive data plans? Thanks in advance
 
Most of New York is covered, you can check airportal.de to see if you are covered by the refarm. As far as building penetration though, thats where things get a bit iffy, as its not as good.
 
kipfilet said:
Thank you for your kind replies.

Is there any way to keep track of the refarming? I just got this unlocked phone so I don't really feel like getting a new iPhone 5 now. Does ATT offer competitive data plans? Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

There's a website, airportal.de, that tracks AWS 3G refarmed areas reported by users. Note that is not official data from tmobile.
 
kipfilet said:
Hi everyone,

I recently unlocked an international iPhone 4 and am using it with a T-Mobile sim card in Manhattan. I used to have a T-Mobile Blackberry with 3G speeds most of the time. However, my iPhone seems to be stuck on Edge. I almost never see the 3G symbol and this only happens when I'm in the middle of the street or something. I find it really weird because I had 3G with the Blackberry most of the time. Is there anything I can do to improve this? Thanks in advance
Click to expand...
What part of NYC?
I just can from a iPhone 4 and I was getting excellent coverage. It may be your phone.
 
Manhattan, mostly in Gramercy, East Village and Greenwich Village. I am going to a T-Mobile store tomorrow to check if there is any problem with my phone.
 
kipfilet said:
Thank you for your kind replies.

Is there any way to keep track of the refarming? I just got this unlocked phone so I don't really feel like getting a new iPhone 5 now. Does ATT offer competitive data plans? Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

They're coming out with coverage maps for the 1900mhz refarmed areas April 23rd. You'll be able to check it on the website
 
I went to T-Mobile today and they told me 3G coverage will get much better on April 12th for some reason. Don't know if it is magically going to happen...
 
things get worst before getting better.

let us all give t-mobile some more time, they are just start carrying iPhone coming friday. They will do everything they can do to support iPhone on their network.

Hope their LTE deployments goes well through out the 2013.

----------
kipfilet said:
I went to T-Mobile today and they told me 3G coverage will get much better on April 12th for some reason. Don't know if it is magically going to happen...
Click to expand...

they are going to some software update for iPhone on 12th, if that is what they meant I wonder.

if you use iPhone 4S or iPhone 5 - it could be better with their band compatibility ...
 
kipfilet said:
Hi everyone,

I recently unlocked an international iPhone 4 and am using it with a T-Mobile sim card in Manhattan. I used to have a T-Mobile Blackberry with 3G speeds most of the time. However, my iPhone seems to be stuck on Edge. I almost never see the 3G symbol and this only happens when I'm in the middle of the street or something. I find it really weird because I had 3G with the Blackberry most of the time. Is there anything I can do to improve this? Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

iPhone 4 will never work in NYC with T-Mobile's 3G due to incompatible frequencies. Same with 4S. Only the newer iPhone 5 model will.

Everyone else is wrong.
 
The iPhone 4/4S will work on T-Mobile's refarmed 3G, which again can be seen on the crowdsourced refarm map at airportal.de . I had an iPhone 4 previously and I've seen their refarmed network grow, which was a delighting thing to see.

If your looking for T-Mobile's faster HSPA+ Network however, which is what all the official t-mobile supported phones have, then you wont get it with the 4/4s, or the current unlocked iPhone 5's.

Manhattan appears to have more gaps in refarm coverage probably due to the amount of buildings. There is coverage there, but whenever I get dropped back to Edge, I usually have to switch the 3G off and on to pick the signal back up. Here's to hoping when they deploy LTE, it'll be robust enough for me not to have to do that.
 
jav6454 said:
iPhone 4 will never work in NYC with T-Mobile's 3G due to incompatible frequencies. Same with 4S. Only the newer iPhone 5 model will.

Everyone else is wrong.
Click to expand...
U are 1000% wrong. The iPhone 4 will work with tmobile reframed 3G(HSPA
 
osofast240sx said:
U are 1000% wrong. The iPhone 4 will work with tmobile reframed 3G(HSPA
Click to expand...

Yes it does work. Even my 3GS works pretty good on T-Mobiles new system. It doesn't get as good speeds as my 4S but it's not bad.
 

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bozzykid said:
Huh? Much of NYC has already been refarmed to 1900Mhz.
Click to expand...

Which is leased/sold from already crippled AT&T freqs. T-Mo 3G in NYC will be a spectacular fail. Although, like I said, the iPhone 5 will work sorta ok due to relative few people on LTE. If that makes a difference to you.

Also, note, you claim much NYC is refarmed, yet OP seems to have no 3G at all. Recall T-Mo already released their Carrier Update patch. Begs the question...
 
jav6454 said:
Also, note, you claim much NYC is refarmed, yet OP seems to have no 3G at all. Recall T-Mo already released their Carrier Update patch. Begs the question...
Click to expand...

I don't have to claim it. Just go to http://airportal.de/. If the OP doesn't have 3G, then they are in an area that isn't refarmed or they have an issue with their phone. But much of it has been refarmed.

And T-Mobile hasn't released the carrier update yet. You shouldn't state information that isn't true if you don't know.
 
jav6454 said:
Which is leased/sold from already crippled AT&T freqs. T-Mo 3G in NYC will be a spectacular fail. Although, like I said, the iPhone 5 will work sorta ok due to relative few people on LTE. If that makes a difference to you.

Also, note, you claim much NYC is refarmed, yet OP seems to have no 3G at all. Recall T-Mo already released their Carrier Update patch. Begs the question...
Click to expand...
How is getting an average of 10 Mbs on HSPA+ a fail??? You might get 3 Mbs on AT&T.
 
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