[AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note I717] Jamesyboy:
I apologize for the multiple posts. The free image sharing sites i found either A) required you to sign up for their service, B) made me wait before uploading an additional image, or C) cost money.

Each modem was flashed 3 times for good measures. Last night, after my first flash and first test, the results were screwey and it turns out the flash didn't stick.

During the UCLE2 tests, there was a break of a few minutes while i called the police...someone kept walked by my window to my room 3 time, and on the 3rd time, they stood in front of it and started fiddling with my screen.

It's important to realize that the largest Delta occured on the UCLC5 Modem....there was actually a point where i dropped into HSPA and had to wait a minute of so to start another test. The speeds for the stock PTA settings were horrid, and my use of this modem tells me that it's unstable. Again, like i've said before, it might have felt faster--especially because of the huge disparity when it came to the default PTA settings versus the OP's, but it isn't the fastest...and it wasn't the modem.

UCLE2 with the OP's PTA had the highest average.

We can reconsider calculating the averages, taking out the outliers...for instance, the UCLE2 default PTA settings....i had the fastest download of the night, at 10+ MBps.

UCLC5

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Default APN = 2.998 MBps Download

-----Average Latency = 84.8ms

OP APN = 7.206 MBps Download

-----Average Latency = 70ms

UCLD3

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Default APN = 6.434 MBps Download

-----Average Latency = 91.2ms

OP APN = 7.666 MBps Download

-----Average Latency = 78.8ms

UCLE2

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Default APN = 8.664 MBps Download

-----Average Latency = 70.4ms

OP APN = 9.152 MBps Download

-----Average Latency = 70.2ms

It's important to note the difference between my node and anyone else's. The Chicagoland Area network constitutes a measly 5x5 mhz area. Spectrum here is extremely hard to come by. Verizon is hoarding it all. The situation might change when Qualcomm's joke-of-a-service spectrum sale kicks in. ATT will have more to implement more of the-kind-of-LTE-we-love-the-most-- the low(er) frequency 700mhz block.

As promised, i got some time to calculate average for latency.

In the end, this is a fairly comprehensive review of the strengths and weaknesses (or lack thereof) of a 5x5 network, using a robust backbone for speedtesting, and a not-so-robust network.

I can be sure about load--the area i live in is on the edge of the Fermilab National Laboratory-- the closest string of housing exists a couple miles east of here, and the housing at fermilab, while dense, doesn't start until after a designated wildlife zone with 0 human beings living in it. The tests were conducted late at night and showed no signs of improving or degrading. Population in other direction includes a retirement home (no Galaxy Notes or One X's there) and an area that's largely a retirement community. Tests were done on a friday night thru saturday morning, the time that should be least strenuous. Results were consistent with what i experience daily-- and i've had extensive exprience with each of these modems.

This is about as good as it gets in the wild, without being in a radio-secure room, with my own tower in it.

Conclusions:

UCLE2 Provided the best speeds--period. UCLE2 with the OP's APN settings provided the most stable speeds, and latency consistent with the lowest i've seen in the area. The results were extremely stable.

UCLD3 Provided unremarkable results, and they were consistent with the trend.

UCLC5 Provided the largest delta between the OP's settings and the default PTA settings provided by AT&T. This modem was the least stable. This is the first time i've ever seen a phone sitting untouched drop into a lower performing network mode.

I fell i've thoroughly explored all possibilities here, and the results suggest that we NOT flash the UCLC5 modem...it's both unstable, and unnecessary. I'm convinced the APN settings were what made the difference.

The consequences of defining our APN profiles with imaginitive (saying it nicely) flags:

ARE UNKNOWN

While we gain speed (and possibly lower our latency) , the consequences of using these flags are unclear. A few of the flags that I could research and understand what they do weren't encouraging at all...from a security point of view. Only two flags aren't present in the stock PTA: Admin and FOTA. The first flag stands for...duh. And the second flag stands for Firmware over the air. While these flags don't tell me much, it's not obvious why these flags would improve performance on the network side of things. I think the results have to do with some arbitrary event on the phone side of things.

Flags liks SUPL (Secure User Plane) and HIPRI (High Priority) and DEFAULT (Asks the phone to use this connection as a priority), should make a difference.

The bottom line, is that we could be using flags that are used to **flag** devices in some kind of test mode, or the flags could be requesting some type of priority over other devices for network or other organizational purposes (federal communications have priority over civilian purposes). This could be used to send or flag data as test data, mark the for deep packet inspection, or alter the security of our communications in unintended ways. In short-- if you enjoy even a sliver of privacy, until we know more-- until we understand why these flags, or the presence of a 2nd APN profile would improve performance at all, we should stay away from them. While results on a 10x10 or 20x20 network could be even more pronounced, due to the increased throughput of the contained nodes, performance deltas could also be less pronounced.

If you appreciate my testing, please hit the thanks button. I probably used 1/2 to 2/3 of my monthly allowance on these tests.