[T-Mobile, Samsung Galaxy SIII] neotoky:
Guys it's definitely the network. I having been dealing with T-mobile tech about my 4g issues for weeks now. I have a long story to tell because I wanted to get this off my chest. Please take the time and read this. It is definitely a problem that T-mobile doesn't want to admit or resolve. It happened 3 weeks ago when I noticed that I couldn't connect to google services and the internet on my phone. The first time I called they said that they were doing construction on the towers to get ready for lte( I live in CT). They said it should be back to normal on the next 3 days and call back if it hasn't changed. It definitely changed for the worse. Before they touched the towers I was consistently getting 10 to 15 Mbps and on a very very good day I would get even up 20Mbps. After they touched the tower, I was starting to get inconsistent and random speeds that ranged from very very slow to what I normally got but it was mostly slower speeds. I was testing these speeds not just in my city but other cities that were far and nearby. I was back and forth on the phone with these supposed tech people where they were opening and closing tickets for engineers to check on the issue and coming back saying that there isn't a problem on their end. At first I was being treated nicely and had the same lady call to me to work out the issue, but three days ago their attitude changed.

They started to tell me that at this point they couldn't do anything else. The engineers didn't see any problems on their end. They wanted to see actual proof of the speeds I was getting which they never bothered to ask me in the first place for weeks when I was using the speed test app. The lady even had the audacity to say that T-mobile only expect customers to get speeds of 2-4 Mbps. It was ridiculous when I even told her I was normally getting 10 to 15Mbps. I mentioned about the theoretical speeds of the HSPA+ of 42 Mbps and 2-4Mbps is incorrect especially in my area( I know it depends on other areas). She then proceeded to say the T-mobile HSPA+ network is 18Mbps. I was so shocked how much this lady was misinformed. These are the tech support, guys. This is the same lady who said weeks ago that my original galaxy s3 was capable of LTE and I told her she was wrong. She actually had to look up the information and admitted that I was right.

Infuriated, I told her I wanted to talk to someone in tech higher level than you and it gets worse. She puts with a guy who spewed even more lies. He also proceeded to say that T-mobile expects customers to only get 2-4 Mbps. I was telling him I was getting 5-8 when I had the galaxy s 4g and that was a couple of years ago. I get 10 to 15 on the s3 which makes sense because technology advances. They mean to tell me that 2-4 is what they expect even till this day. He proceeded to even compare the cable internet and said that even the cable companies expect customers to get 1.5Mbps. I was like who are you to speak for all cable companies. I told him I get 15Mbps consistently with my cable internet. Lastly, he mentioned about how LTE wouldn't make any difference in my speeds on a capable LTE phone. I said if it wouldn't make a difference why even upgrade the towers. He said they were just following suit with other carriers. I couldn't believe I was dealing with tech that are so misinformed. I hung up and contemplated to cancel my service at this point and pay the termination fee but waited until after the weekend so I can be more level headed.

I continued to do speed tests this past weekend where my speeds were god awful. I couldn't even pass .5 Mbps and I was also having connection issues. So I called again today to deal with a different person. I told him the whole story again but this time he was more understanding. He was also shocked by what the tech people have been telling me. He actually reset the network on my phone which the other techs did not even do but it didn't fix the issue. He also mentioned that it could be a hardware issue which I highly doubt. He didn't want me to go through more loops so he connected me with customer loyalty. I told them my situation again. He placed an order to replace my device to know for sure that it isn't a hardware issue( I called a friend who is also in my area and also admitted that he has been noticing slower speeds on his note 2 so hardware could be highly unlikely) He also knocked 5 bucks off my bill for the next 6 months(at this point it doesn't matter if the network will stay the same and I decide to leave). He said if the problem continues even on the new device, to call customer service and say cancel and I will talk to someone( i guess retentions) who can work something out with me. It basically tells me that they are not going to fix the network at all and that this is what will be expected from the network from now on. They didn't want to admit that the network in my area deteriorated and destroyed my speeds. I am going to wait for the arrival of the replacement phone. I will see if they do indeed make this up for me if not I will bite the bullet and cancel my account because this whole situation is asinine.

I apologize for the long write up. I implore anyone who has 4g issues to call T-mobile about the problem. If people don't act they will get away with this. Before anyone asks, I was complete stock on md5 with IMEI intact. Thank you.