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Sprint Denies Widespread Issues with Slow iPhone Data Speeds

I am in CO and I have had no slow down's in speeds... if anything my speeds have increased! Granted, with about 2 bars worth of signal in my dorm, I only get 600-700kbps... Its fast enough and reliable. If I get more signal... I start seeing it over the Mbps. range...

No issues with Sprint... staying with the TRUE unlimited plan thats cheap and reliable.
 
Really Sprint? I switched from my iPhone 4 with ATT to Sprint with an iPhone 4S.

3G speed has been a big disappointment. I live in SE Florida, in the Fort Lauderdale where 3G is not an issue for ATT. Big population, flat land.

Sprint, can you please explain the testing I've been doing then?

sprint-speed.jpg
 
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kerryn said:
The funny thing is is that I did not even think about my 3G speeds until I read this article, so i tested mine.

Here in Boulder, CO, on AT&T I get:

Casper, WY - down 930 kbps, up 890 kbps.
Denver, CO - down 260 kbps, up 1180 kbps.
Woodland Park, CO - down 2330 kbps, up 1140 kbps.
Cheyenne, WY - down 4070 kbps, up 1330 kbps.
Denver, CO - down 1580 kbps, up 1580 kbps.

So I tried different servers and got hugely varying speeds. The Denver server was so bad I tried it again and got better speed the second time.

So my best performance in my five tests were 4070 kbps down and 1580 kbps up. It kind of blows Sprint out of the water. I guess I'll stick with AT&T.
Click to expand...

You're lucky. I'm stuck in the part of Denver that between 8:00AM and 4:00PM, AT&T pretty much turned my 3GS in to an iPod Touch. Sprint is still actually usable for Netflix or Pandora in my section. Slower yes... but far more consistant that AT&T has been for the last year. It doesn't help me that a mile or 2 away from here, I can get aroun 1.5 mbps on AT&T.

So far I'm happy with Sprint. Where I need it... it is usable. Not blazing fast, but usable. AT&T in the places I needed it was sadly just dead.
 
I had the Sprint EVO and not in a 4G area I would pull down about 1000kbps on average. Crap speed even with full signal. I didn't get my iphone activated until 8PM launch night and that entire day my EVO lagged so hard. Sometimes it told me no network connectivity even. Using the iPhone 4S on sprint that night and this past weekend has been dismal as well. Lucky to grab over 200kbps here in Dayton, OH. Looking to return the iPhone and cancel Sprint for my 90 dollar ETF remaining. I love the iPhone and had 3G model for 2 years, but Verizon LTE is calling my name I'm affraid. My friend rubs in the 15,000kbps speed tests every day.
 
My speeds

I ran SpeedTest on my wife's Sprint 4s (my AT&T 4s for work is still in pre-order land... :( ) last Sunday and got roughly the following:

Sprint 3g, 4-5 bars:
0.5Mbps down
0.2Mbps up

wifi from my FTTH connection:
6Mbps down (no clue why that was so slow, but oh well)
12Mbps up

Her account is not with Sprint because of fantastic network performance, but because it's cheap (SERO plan).

Honestly, I've had issues with Sprint's network since we signed her up for it 4+ years ago. However, I'd just assumed those were due to the crappy WinMo phones she was using. Apparently, that wasn't the only issue.

Oh well, those speeds are more than adequate for her needs (and for me to track down her phone when she misplaces it. :) ) But yes, at those speeds, "unlimited" certainly doesn't mean the same thing as it does on AT&T.
 
liphonearth said:
You do understand that at 40KBS it will take you 34 days to get to 2GB, right?
Click to expand...

40KB a second is almost 3.5GB a day if continuous for 24 hours. Might want to redo the math.

Edit: Even if you meant 40Kb it still takes around 4.8 days to make 2GB.
 
Sprint speed test

I have Sprint in Orlando, FL. Using the speedtest.net app on the 4S I'm getting .10 mbps download and .58 mbps.
 
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burnout8488 said:
I was getting absolutely impressive 3G speeds last night. (100KB/s down 50KB/s up) On launch day, they were garbage.

I'm wondering if they fixed it and are denying anything was ever wrong in the first place?
Click to expand...

This is a joke? Right?? I just tested here and am getting 466 down and 361 up insided a big building with crappy signal. Not on iPhone, but just wondering if you guys are serious about these speeds. Got over 12 megs down on Friday with 4G in another town. Dont have it here yet.
 
I bought a Verizon iPhone 4S for $600 from a VZ customer who had their phone unlocked for international use and am returning my Sprint phone today. Going no contract with Verizon for now. I was getting 0.1 MBPS download on Sprint, now getting 0.8 with VZ. Not bad but at least I don't drop any calls, which was the main issue. Sprint in Tucson sucks, but my friends in Denver have been getting 3.5 MBPS on Sprint. It really depends on location but after 20 dropped calls in 2 days I was done.
 
One thing positive I can say about Sprint is that my colleagues who have Sprint phones here in NYC never have dropped calls. I can't say that about AT&T.
 
Anyone have an iPhone 4 or 4S on Sprint in the San Gabriel Valley (northern Los Angeles)? I'm trying to gather some data so I can choose between Sprint, AT&T and Verizon.

Edit:

People please take a moment to familiarize yourselves with the differences between KB (kilobytes) and kb (kilobits). Speedtest.net shows bandwidth results in megaBITS. Some posters here are showing their results in kiloBYTES.
 
"fastest speeds" may be in comparison to the only other CDMA competitor (Verizon), at peak speeds. In which case, yes, Sprint is faster.
 
thebeans said:
This is a joke? Right?? I just tested here and am getting 466 down and 361 up insided a big building with crappy signal. Not on iPhone, but just wondering if you guys are serious about these speeds. Got over 12 megs down on Friday with 4G in another town. Dont have it here yet.
Click to expand...

Is it KBps or Kbps? If the OP is getting 100KBps (800Kbps) that isn't too bad for EVDO Rev A. On T-Mobile in NYC on my Nexus One, I can get up to 2800Kbps with a clear shot, but it degrades very quickly inside a building (I'm getting a whopping 126Kbps right now).
 
Strobe said:
40KB a second is almost 3.5GB a day if continuous for 24 hours. Might want to redo the math.

Edit: Even if you meant 40Kb it still takes around 4.8 days to make 2GB.
Click to expand...


the JK means just kidding. But still, we're talking almost 5 days straight of data transfer.. so unlimited doesn't mean much

At that rate, can you even stream a movie?

I was thinking about going to Sprint, but now I'm not so sure.
 
Chicago northern suburbs - 200/150. Half the time Siri won't even try the connection is so laggy and slow. Hoping for improvement over time.

EDIT: Day #2 - slight improvement but interesting that upload has been faster than download. Average of 10 tests: 345/430.
 
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I told them to send me a FREE Air Rave to boost my signal at home or I was going to bring my phones back and cancel service. They took my address that minute.
 
I get about 0.35Mbps d/l in my house and 1.40Mbps in good coverage areas (4-5 bars). Not too bad and it's still usable imo. I'm in the DC area btw where Sprint is #2.
 
I activated a 4s on Sprint's network last night and the speeds are horrible. It takes several minutes to load a simple page (i.e., apple.com). Not only am I not getting speeds as good as the speeds I used to get on Sprint's network with my Blackberry, but I'm not getting service in certain areas where I previously had Sprint service.

If this doesn't get better in the next few days, I will be returning this to Sprint and jumping ship.
 
bretm said:
That's like 1/50th of normal. Should be getting 5mb/sec download at least. I get that on regular 4. Usually at least 2 mb/sec.
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Really? are you saying you normally get 40 Mbps on your iPhone? Wow, and I thought my cable internet was fast at 15 Mbps!
 
ross0 said:
I activated a 4s on Sprint's network last night and the speeds are horrible. It takes several minutes to load a simple page (i.e., apple.com). Not only am I not getting speeds as good as the speeds I used to get on Sprint's network with my Blackberry, but I'm not getting service in certain areas where I previously had Sprint service.

If this doesn't get better in the next few days, I will be returning this to Sprint and jumping ship.
Click to expand...

I used my Sprint 4S's all weekend and through monday.

The fastest I saw was 400 kb/s. once.

The rest of the time it was less than 100, and even then, it was often 5 or 10.

I went to the Verizon store and set my Sprint 4S next to a Verizon 4S, and ended up with .05Mb/s on sprint and .80Mb/s with Verizon.

I returned my phones and switched to Verizon.

Consider with iMessage you can get a minimal text plan. My 2-person Sprint plan was $139/month My verizon plan is $149/month. Worth 10 bucks to get data rates that are 16+ times greater.

I find it alarming that so many people exaggerate or lie about their Sprint data rates. The Sprint representative I talked to told me that there were no data-rate problems, and it was a problem with iPhones on all carriers. He then told me that Verizon and Sprint were the same network, so my comparison was not valid.

Sub-par service doesn't need loyalty and lies to convince people to join the network.

Of course, I am only talking about my local Sprint coverage/service. I am aware people elsewhere are getting fine service from Sprint.
 
burnout8488 said:
I was getting absolutely impressive 3G speeds last night. (100KB/s down 50KB/s up) On launch day, they were garbage.

I'm wondering if they fixed it and are denying anything was ever wrong in the first place?
Click to expand...

That's considered impressive? My 4 on AT&T just got 2.46mbit down and 1.06mbit up. The way most people talk, AT&T is the slowest.

I also keep seeing people brag about getting 3mbit on their Verizon LTE phones.
 
All the Speedtest.net numbers are a little missleading in my opion. I can run that app, get stupid slow results, like 40-70kbps and then go stream a Netflix movie with little buffering, no stuttering, and at a watchable quality (I'm sure it's the lowest quality version available, but it's watchable on a 3.5" screen).

That said, I'm standing next to ATT iPhone 4/4S users who are getting 1.5-2mbps on Speedtest.net. Faster than my Sprint 4S was getting during off peak hours. Combined with the battery testing showing Sprint users getting substantially less battery life I am really considering switching before my 14 day return window closes.
 
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