Database Users

Is t-mobile 2g faster than at&t's?

So I ordered my N1 yesterday, and currently have at&t. wasn't too worried about the whole 3g thing, because I figured one of the smart guys here at xda would figure out a way to make it work. After looking in to it further, I realize the hardware just won't allow that. I would just switch to T-mobile, but they have no 3g coverage anywhere near me yet. this brings me to my question. is it worth switching to tmobiles coverage for faster 2g possibly, or in the hopes that they'll soon expand their network. I don't mind getting out of my contract with at&t, tmobiles rates seem to be a lot better. I'm just wondering if anybody has heard anything on T-mobiles future plans.

I think most anecdotal evidence by most users is that EDGE on TMO is much faster than ATT. Why? Even though the "transport" 2G technology is the same, ATT still suffers from not enough bandwidth at its towers for all the heavy 3G areas due to heavy usage. -- In other words, backhaul contention.
Also, the fact that in places where there is no TMO 3G... EDGE works quite well for the very same reason... Even with towers that only have several T1/DS1's in place instead of T3/DS3's or fiber
Cheers,
Kermee

In NYC, where I have 3G coverage as well, EDGE tops out at 10-15KB/s

hurrycaine3000 said:
So I ordered my N1 yesterday, and currently have at&t. wasn't too worried about the whole 3g thing, because I figured one of the smart guys here at xda would figure out a way to make it work. After looking in to it further, I realize the hardware just won't allow that. I would just switch to T-mobile, but they have no 3g coverage anywhere near me yet. this brings me to my question. is it worth switching to tmobiles coverage for faster 2g possibly, or in the hopes that they'll soon expand their network. I don't mind getting out of my contract with at&t, tmobiles rates seem to be a lot better. I'm just wondering if anybody has heard anything on T-mobiles future plans.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I personally have ran on EDGE for awhile on tmobile and have never had a problem with wifi while I am at home/school... however the 3g is nice, though my house seems to have 3g signals
its simple business really, though 1 man cannot make a difference... as the company grows, the service grows... verizon has the best service because it has the most customers... i think the reason tmobile has struggled in the US (as opposed to being the number 1 world wide carrier) is because of the lack of appeal from phones... with more phones rolling out and tmobile always having its doors open to unlocked phones i see the company gaining some momentum and it starts with these new android phones making it big as well as now having the fastest network in the nation...
ive had bad experiences with both verizon (contract issues) and att (terrible customer service), tmobile has yet to steer me wrong (other than not giving me an upgrade for the N1 haha)
with that said, try em out, idk if companies still let you trial their service for a week or so but you could ask?

i honestly cant tel a diff between edge and 3 g lol they both are friggin fast as hell

VoLoDaR1 said:
i honestly cant tel a diff between edge and 3 g lol they both are friggin fast as hell
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It all depends on what you're doing Tweeting and reading tweets... probably not so much
Cheers,
Kermee

are you crazy? 3G is AT LEAST 10+ times as fast as EDGE.

I know on my touch pro using att 3g over edge. they have 3g where I work, but not at my house. so I always just use wifi at my house, but don't bother at work because the 3g is fast enough. I can definetly tell the difference. granted there is wifi almost everywhere these days, but with my touch pro I have to turn it off and on when I'm using it so my battery half makes through a day. It will be nice if the N1's is more of a automatic thing, if that makes sense. I guess if I knew that t Mobile would actually be implementing 3g in my area at all soon, it would be an easier decision, but I haven't found anything to make me think they'll be adding towers in York, PA any time soon.

Im in Dallas TX and just activated my phone. I was worried because people in some forums where saying phone kept switching to 2g. I just activated my phone and its been on 3 out of 4 bars on 3g last 30-40 minutes...I know this is kind of off topic, but thought it was important do to the nature of all the talk about speed on tmobile.
Ok im scared now, i just looked at the USA map on tmobile https://my.t-mobile.com/Plan/CoverageMap.aspx and looks to hardly be any 3g coverage! What! Tell me it aint so!

that's what I'm saying, I want 3g on this phone, but it's just not in my area on tmobile. we've established it's pretty much going to be impossible to get att's to work on this phone. It doesn't look like tmobile has 3g anywhere, atleast not hardly. what to do, what to do.

dallastx said:
Im in Dallas TX and just activated my phone. I was worried because people in some forums where saying phone kept switching to 2g. I just activated my phone and its been on 3 out of 4 bars on 3g last 30-40 minutes...I know this is kind of off topic, but thought it was important do to the nature of all the talk about speed on tmobile.
Ok im scared now, i just looked at the USA map on tmobile https://my.t-mobile.com/Plan/CoverageMap.aspx and looks to hardly be any 3g coverage! What! Tell me it aint so!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thats called #4 carrier coverage
as for that map, its ancient... the thing has never worked properly and the maps take forever to load yet i wish i could get a decent detailed coverage map for tmobile somewhere...

hurrycaine3000 said:
I know on my touch pro using att 3g over edge. they have 3g where I work, but not at my house. so I always just use wifi at my house, but don't bother at work because the 3g is fast enough. I can definetly tell the difference. granted there is wifi almost everywhere these days, but with my touch pro I have to turn it off and on when I'm using it so my battery half makes through a day. It will be nice if the N1's is more of a automatic thing, if that makes sense. I guess if I knew that t Mobile would actually be implementing 3g in my area at all soon, it would be an easier decision, but I haven't found anything to make me think they'll be adding towers in York, PA any time soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OMG i live in york to lol. ive asked tmobile many times if we'll ever have 3g and they told me december 09 but that never happened. who knows if we'll ever get it. but edge for me on tmobile works good unless u use media functions like youtube and streaming video but its good for web browsing and email

Make sure T-Mobile has EDGE all around your area because I've found that there are many places that don't even have EDGE on T-Mobile and are GRPS only. That being said, I do find that usually T-Mobile EDGE is faster.... The difference is so small that I wouldn't change networks over it though..

I get around 25KB/s or so, which works fine for streaming music and such. This is quite a bit faster than the AT&T users seem to get here.

Yeah you should be happy with what you've got. EDGE isn't amazing but at least with the 900mhz range you've got coverage. I'm not sure about T-mobile US thought but it has to be better than UK. I live in the UK just outside of town with 3 basestations surrounding my house just out of range with 2100 3g and 1800 2g. I can get signal occasionally with my Iphone 3gs, until I touch it...
The coverage is okish but I get Black-spots everywhere; literally, I can walk round the corner away from a basestation and lose signal. I can only use my phone if I'm underneath a basestation and even then the crappy 4.2Mbit/s (It may even be less than that) limited basestations are overloaded. Each user is then further capped at roughly 1.8Mbit/s
That's 3G and above, which I rarely get as I mentioned. When you get 2G you get EDGE. When I get 2G I don't get EDGE, I don't even get 2.5G, I get slower-than-dial-up GPRS which is unusable. None of T-mo UK's basestations are EDGE enabled; with common black-spots and poor 3G reception, this makes for an appalling network. I can't wait to switch to Three UK. Blanket UK 3g coverage with amazing deals: £15/mo rolling contract with 300 mins, unlimited texts, Unlimited (7.2Mbit/s) data. The only problem is they have shockingly bad phones (no problem for me, or so I thought...)

melterx12 said:
are you crazy? 3G is AT LEAST 10+ times as fast as EDGE.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That pretty well sums up the problem with TMUS users.
They have no f***ing clue.

when will we all actually have wide spread 3g on tmobile?

I'm not with tmobile, but I love my new phone. I would switch over tomorrow if I had any idea when I could expect to have 3g anywhere near me. granted with at&t I won't have 3g anyway, with the N1, but that's the point. there's no reason for me to switch and break my contract, when it won't help my cause at all. I don't know if it's because tmobile has no Idea when they'll get to us here in York, PA. or if they just don't tell people because they know if they're not getting faster service soon enough, they just won't make the switch. It has to be killing the sales of the N1 when people on at&t that don't live in a tmobile 3g area see that they'll be giving up their 3g access. that said I will say that I've been using my phone all day on edge and when available WiFi, and it hasn't been too painful, but when you have hardware like this, you want it to be fully functioning, and bad a*%. come on TM get us what we need. I do realize that part of the problem is the government not getting off their frequencies, but this has to change so that what google is trying to do, by offering this phone with no strings, or locks I should say, can actually work. Go google, and tmobile for the effort, I love my N1. I would just love it more with fully functioning 3G.
P.S.
if you're with me and wanna help tmobile get it's baught and payed for air waves from uncle sam, so that we can all benefit. follow this link, http://www.t-mobile-takeaction.com/
customer, or not and let's make this thing happen.

it all depends on sales man... if everyone in york is on att or verizon then tmobile may not give too ****s about service in york pa because the open market there is extremely small, the only way to do business there would be to get people to switch over and with the typical cell phone user that is not likely because of the benefits of mobile to mobile. i wouldnt want to switch if EVERYONE in my town had the same company, thats free calling all the time...
the first areas to target for expansion of service are large populous areas and high traffic areas such as along highways... the only thing york has going for it is the interstate running through it, other than that push for people to switch to tmobile or you are out of luck lol

The spectrum that T-Mobile purchased is still in use by some government agencies. There are places where 3G is fully set up and ready to go, they're just waiting on the spectrum to be abandoned.

If 3G has been installed in a city near you and you still do not have coverage, you probably will not GET coverage for years. They are still in the "adding cities" phase, and not really gradually expanding their network yet.
If there is no 3G in your nearby city, hope and pray you are covered when 3G comes.
If you live in the country, you are SOL with Tmo 3G.

Tmo 3G sucks ! I get 3G in living room and EDGE in bathroom ! Went skiing and my friend with ATT was streaming music on 3G and I had GPRS roaming.....
.....and all this while Sprint rolling 4G already

kolyan said:
Tmo 3G sucks ! I get 3G in living room and EDGE in bathroom !
.....and all this while Spring rolling 4G already
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
better than no 3g at all. at&t no chance of 3g on N1, atleast not yet...

Being a current spring user, but leaving spring for TMO, as soon as N1 lands, I'm a little hurt, and will cry my man tears (properly cried on the inside, as man tears are) the next time I hear spring referred to as spring
is this going to get to be a meme on xda's little corner of the intertubes?

hd2 data sucks update needed

we need a update asap i can not keep 3g or even edge at all htc must know about this i will be calling them i hope others will follow

if you're using a old sim card you might want to get a new one. a rep told me that they got new sims that might help.

I have 2 new sim cards in both my HD2 phones. Same issue. I have installed s2u2 and on the slide unlock screen I see it switch from H to 3G over and over all day no matter where I am. I really do think something is seriously wrong with these phones and/or the nework. Does anyone else on T-Mobile with s2u2 installed see the same thing. We need to gather enough information to send to T-Mobile and HTC so they will see how serious this issue is. Thank You! )

kevev said:
I have 2 new sim cards in both my HD2 phones. Same issue. I have installed s2u2 and on the slide unlock screen I see it switch from H to 3G over and over all day no matter where I am. I really do think something is seriously wrong with these phones and/or the nework. Does anyone else on T-Mobile with s2u2 installed see the same thing. We need to gather enough information to send to T-Mobile and HTC so they will see how serious this issue is. Thank You! )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Switching from H to 3G is good... you're getting great speeds then. I can only get edge inside my house. It's not the HD2 that the problem... it's t-mobiles coverage. the 1700mhz band does not go through walls or barriers nearly as well as at&ts 850mhz band.

I've been email HTC about my issues with my phone and the only thing they really say is to remove any 3rd party application and soft reset.. And they also say to contact T-mobile with any further issues.. Like they know how to fix it?

zarathustrax said:
Switching from H to 3G is good... you're getting great speeds then. I can only get edge inside my house. It's not the HD2 that the problem... it's t-mobiles coverage. the 1700mhz band does not go through walls or barriers nearly as well as at&ts 850mhz band.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh that sucks. Do you at least have wifi @ home?
That is true about the 1700 Mhz, but AT&T 3G is mostly 1900Mhz and 850Mhz in very few places so I would expect them to have the same issue but they don't. I think T-Mobile may have the tower spread apart farther than ATT. But who knows.

calling tmobile is useless I tried that 3 times already and I only get excuses like the tower its down or im in a weird area so im just confused I know the network suck s but not this bad.

ihearttreo said:
if you're using a old sim card you might want to get a new one. a rep told me that they got new sims that might help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only idiot thinks it is related SIM.
TMO CSRs are famous dumbs!

My HTC Dream gets better reception than the HTC HD2 in areas of weak reception (1-3bars). The HTC Dream got a radio update a month ago that helped it improve reception. I'm hoping for a similar radio update to the HD2.
I don't care too much about poor reception, as long as it can maintain the 1-2bars and not drop the call. The HTC Dream is better than the HD2 at maintaining a weak reception. I get full bars and 3G outside, while indoors in my 'fortress' I only get 1-2 bars.
I called and told them about the bad reception on the HD2 (compared to the HTC Dream. I was to try to manually set the network to check. I wasn't at the same location so I couldn't try during the call. I tried later and the reception didn't seem to improve. I'll be calling back and seeing if a request/problem report could be submitted for their techs.

kevev said:
Oh that sucks. Do you at least have wifi @ home?
That is true about the 1700 Mhz, but AT&T 3G is mostly 1900Mhz and 850Mhz in very few places so I would expect them to have the same issue but they don't. I think T-Mobile may have the tower spread apart farther than ATT. But who knows.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually at&t have been moving all there 3g from 1900 to 850, and I beleive at this point they are mostly 850mhz. They plan to switch it all to 850 eventually.

zarathustrax said:
Switching from H to 3G is good... you're getting great speeds then. I can only get edge inside my house. It's not the HD2 that the problem... it's t-mobiles coverage. the 1700mhz band does not go through walls or barriers nearly as well as at&ts 850mhz band.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same issue here. Edge in the house. As soon as I go outside, I'm on 3G/H.

X10a dropping 3G?

Has anyone else had an issue with having the phone drop out of 3G coverage, and not want to reconnect by itself?
It seems to me as if when there is no 3G coverage it falls back onto GPRS and doesnt check if 3G is available.
I've set it to WCDMA (3G) only mode just to get on 3G, but it sucks cause I have no fallback and am out out of coverage often enough to take some advantage of GPRS.
Also 3G signal seems pretty weak compared to my HTC Magic in same locations...
Any ideas?

Might be something about your area, I haven't lost 3G once since I got my phone.

Once I put it on 3G only mode it seems to be alright but the odd building I wont have anything cause I have no GPRS to go to unless I manually switch it back and forth.
Maybe I'll call up rogers tech support and see if theres any known issues, but usually Im more informed then they are. :S

I have had this problem, for the first week or so the 3G was rock solid and i was getting pretty good speeds. Then things started playing up and Orange in the UK told me to switch to GSM only, data speeds sucked big time, timescape would fail to update etc etc. So i called up and they are sending a replacement handset out.
The 3G coverage where i live and work is excellent according to the Orange website, so there shouldn't be any issues there.
I could not put up with the slower internet speeds, so i hope it was just a duff handset.

i drove across the US and i had 3g where there were 3g and it was on edge where there weren't any 3g. it went back to 3g once i reached 3g area.
my setting is on gsm/wcdma preferred.
i dunno why yours isn't going back up to 3g in a strong 3g area ??

which carrier are you with?

Rogers in Canada

i would check with your carrier and see a map of coverage. did you get the phone from them?
the only other way is to repair the phone. but losing 3G in a 3G covered area is the first i've heard from the X10. i've heard that the NEXUS ONE has somewhat of the same issue....

Well I know the coverage is there because when the phone is set to WCDMA (3G) only mode, I will have coverage. But when it is set to dual mode, as soon as it drops to GSM it seems like it doesn't even bother checking or reverting back to 3G, even though I am back in 3G coverage.

i'd probably talk to the carrier about it and troubleshoot it. maybe you can see if the phone is defective or not by doing that. and hopefully get a new device.

arcticreaver said:
i'd probably talk to the carrier about it and troubleshoot it. maybe you can see if the phone is defective or not by doing that. and hopefully get a new device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol troubleshooting with rogers is like putting a sawed off 12 guage in your mouth and pulling the trigger...

wow rogers service is that bad?

yup sadly. I have dealt with all the majors in North america (even worked for att) and rogers is THE WORST.
"power concedes nothing without a demand. it never did. it never will."
They have been the premier carrier in canada for many years, only recently has telus been catching up. So now they're changing... but they still hire idiots for tech support.
Case in point, instead of giving me apn settings they said my x1 was defective. Found the apn settings and x1 worked perfectly.

Ive had pretty good luck with rogers so far, and I've worked for all the big carriers.
I think with tech support its really hit and miss but id have to say bell is probably the worst for issues, account and phone related...
IMO ...
-------------------------------------
Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App

Funny you said that, I just was toying with my X10 (running on AT&T in Bay area, bought from Rogers Wireless) and its doing the same. Once it goes to Edge, doesnt bother to check for the 3G.. hmmmm.... let me play a bit more.. if i find something .. i will update !!

I lost 3G while in a tunnel today, lots my radio stream and it went Edge, once I was back in the clear it recovered properly.
The program Power Manager, has a 2G / 3G toggle on it, maybe you can use that to force switch it back if its not auto switching.

Ya that would probably work, I'll try it out. Thanks
I was just hoping for fix rather than a work around, lol :S

midnight79 said:
Funny you said that, I just was toying with my X10 (running on AT&T in Bay area, bought from Rogers Wireless) and its doing the same. Once it goes to Edge, doesnt bother to check for the 3G.. hmmmm.... let me play a bit more.. if i find something .. i will update !!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
my rogers on us atnt switches back to 3g. is it because the 3g signal where you are is weak so it just stays on the stronger edge signal ?
cause i swear i drove from somewhere with 3g though many many parts without 3g and now i have 3g again. strange.....

I can go to a location where i know there is full 3G coverage (by switching to 3G only mode) but it wont switch back after being dropped (down to EDGE in low coverage) but it doesn't want go back to 3G by itself for whatever reason?

dan.expo said:
I can go to a location where i know there is full 3G coverage (by switching to 3G only mode) but it wont switch back after being dropped (down to EDGE in low coverage) but it doesn't want go back to 3G by itself for whatever reason?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HSPA+ Upgrades going on in Red Deer/Lacombe

hd2 on at&t

so i have been using my hd2 on att with edge for about a year now. ever since att starting switchin their towers for the backhaul for 4g i have lost lots of signal. anyone else experiencing this? any way to fix it

trueblood said:
so i have been using my hd2 on att with edge for about a year now. ever since att starting switchin their towers for the backhaul for 4g i have lost lots of signal. anyone else experiencing this? any way to fix it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I read an article a couple of weeks ago that indicated that AT&T would be gradually phasing out edge.

stevedebi said:
I read an article a couple of weeks ago that indicated that AT&T would be gradually phasing out edge.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
jeez... I hope not...

trueblood said:
so i have been using my hd2 on att with edge for about a year now. ever since att starting switchin their towers for the backhaul for 4g i have lost lots of signal. anyone else experiencing this? any way to fix it
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
me too. i thought it was just my phone with a hardware issue. im about to send off the phone for repair.
i get spotty EDGE, but mainly on GRPS
first it was the spotty 3G, now EDGE... Dam you At&t

sal2708 said:
me too. i thought it was just my phone with a hardware issue. im about to send off the phone for repair.
i get spotty EDGE, but mainly on GRPS
first it was the spotty 3G, now EDGE... Dam you At&t
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You must be talking about 3G on another device cause I know you are not getting 3G on the AT&T network using your HD2, that is unless you have the Austrialian model of the HD2.

T-Macgnolia said:
You must be talking about 3G on another device cause I know you are not getting 3G on the AT&T network using your HD2, that is unless you have the Austrialian model of the HD2.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
oh, sorry, lol im talking in general At&t's network
but once i went into roaming, and i had 3G lol

If AT&T removed EDGE off their network that would leave GSM, 3G, and HSPA+... Or isn't EDGE and upgraded GSM... So it would leave just 3G and HSPA+

they cant get rid off EDGE or GSM,
1) GSM is their network removing it would leave the option of CDMA
2) EDGE will be there as long as there is 3G available.

That's right, edge is just faster gprs. Both are part of the GSM type network.
You are probably just getting spotty service during the upgrade. Once they are done in your area you should be back to normal.
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA Premium App

well it seems my area will be gettinng 4G lol. cuz my service sucks $#%& at the moment.
i even called AT&T, *****ed them out too... HAHA got my self a new sim card. but im still sending the phone in for repair.

okay guys, MAJOR NEWS! T-Mobile US now belongs to AT&T.
does that mean that with in a year or so, our unlocked HD2 will be picking up AT&T 3G or HSPA+ since the T-Mobile spectrum now belongs to AT&T??

sal2708 said:
okay guys, MAJOR NEWS! T-Mobile US now belongs to AT&T.
does that mean that with in a year or so, our unlocked HD2 will be picking up AT&T 3G or HSPA+ since the T-Mobile spectrum now belongs to AT&T??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AT&T does not own T mobile yet, they have put in an offer but it has ti be reviewed and approved by the SEC. To make sure that AT&T will not become a monopoly, because with this buy AT&T will leap over Verizon for the largest network by far.

trueblood said:
AT&T does not own T mobile yet, they have put in an offer but it has ti be reviewed and approved by the SEC. To make sure that AT&T will not become a monopoly, because with this buy AT&T will leap over Verizon for the largest network by far.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
isnt att the biggest network atm. customer wise? and besides it will get approved for the reason that the FCC is huge on getting 4G going. att will hhave the biggest for 4G network.
well at least thats what i think is going to happen.

My question about the whole AT&T/T-Mobile deal is, I'm using a couple of T-Mobile HD2s unlocked on AT&T . When/If the deal goes through, will AT&T know I'm using T-Mobile HD2s and upgrade my data plan from the cheap medianet plan to the smartphone plan? My bill is going to skyrocket!

lantern20 said:
My question about the whole AT&T/T-Mobile deal is, I'm using a couple of T-Mobile HD2s unlocked on AT&T . When/If the deal goes through, will AT&T know I'm using T-Mobile HD2s and upgrade my data plan from the cheap medianet plan to the smartphone plan? My bill is going to skyrocket!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
T-Mobile is still going to operate as a separate entity for a long while. So I don't think you need worry - I think the TMO HD2s will continue to work on EDGE with the AT&T network. The question is if they will share towers (meaning that your phone would have G3), but even then you would have to register your APN for the T-Mobile network, which won't work with an AT&T SIM Card.