yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[EVO 4G General] GaryJ51:
I've noticed a drastic decrease in bandwidth on my EVO as well over the past few months. I used to consistently get over 1M down, but now that is a rare event indeed. Even more disturbing are the measured ping times at almost always around 500ms. The noticable bandwidth decrease isn't just local as I frequently travel the same route between Upstate New York and Baltimore, MD. The fall off in download speed is along the entire route. I use Subsonic over 3g to stream music while I'm driving and when I first started doing so, I could travel the whole route without having to wait for a track to download. Now there are several spots where I have to listen to offline tracks because the download speed can't stay ahead of the playback speed. This shouldn't be an issue with 256kbps mp3's.

My guess: same network - more phones. It just stands to reason that as Sprint keeps adding more and more smartphones to the same network, there's just going to be the same resources being shared by more users, which means everyone gets a smaller piece of the pie. Pretty much the same as being connected to the internet over a cable provider. When I first hooked up with Time Warner cable I got great consistent performance. That was because I was the first user in my neighborhood to get connected. 3 years later when you tried to log in on Sat morning, when everyone in the neighborhood was on the same node, it was almost like being back on dial-up. Thank goodness FIOS came along and fixed that problem. If Sprint doesn't wake up and get this fixed, I'll be looking to Verizon to solve this problem as well. Sure, it's more expensive, but paying for a service that doesn't do what you want it to do isn't much of a bargain.
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
You know what else I noticed? My push Gmail (you know, how Gmail works by default) won't work anymore a lot of the time. If I use Roam Control to go onto Verizon or I connect to Wifi, all of the sudden I get 5 emails coming in. The times on them even tell me when they arrived. This started happening recently.
[EVO 4G General] expose11:
I find this discussion very interesting. I use to get higher dl and better ping but... I can't say I notice this in real world use. I stream podcasts and music with no problems. I also get high quality video streaming from youtube and Cnet.

I started wondering if it was how I run the speed tests.
[EVO 4G General] GaryJ51:
It's all probably due to everybody banging Speedtest every 10 mins. :D
[EVO 4G General] expose11:
Lol. Right. Sometimes I wonder if I got this phone for using or messing.
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
SpeedTest, or rather Ookla, has servers all over the country. The one you connect to is chosen by capacity, ping, and distance from you. So capacity isn't an issue.
[EVO 4G General] skillzo1:
Its everything that involves data...forget watching a full you tube flick...emails late, streaming music skips, pic messages i just give up on sending them after 4min of trying, gps cant keep up, dling things inside an already late email....completely useles phone that does everything.
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
Oh I forgot to mention I got a text from my girlfriend days late today. On top of that 3 times during our conversation, I didn't get her texts at all.
[EVO 4G General] sitlet:
I agree. When I got my evo in June, my speeds were great, OVER 2mbps down. Then all of a sudden in early November, speeds went to ****. I haven't hit 1mbps on sprint's network on almost 6 months.

That's what one rep tried to tell me, that the speedtest app is so popular, that it cannot be used to measure speeds. Funny though, how if I switch to wifi, I can consistently hit 50mbps, which is the speed of my wifi.
[EVO 4G General] Hrshycro:
Well, after catching up on the last few pages, I'm pretty sure we can all conclude that all of the people working for sprint are ****ing idiots. They'd be lucky to work for home depot.

Secondly, Tuesday I got perfect speeds at school and around the whole city, but Thursday, it was complete **** again. Either they're testing/updating towers, or just don't know what the f they're doing. I think their QoS settings are screwed up nationwide.

Anybody heard back from consumerist or any other blog?
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
Nope. Dude I emailed at D.H.'s office didn't even have the decency to email me back. I told him I don't need to be called back about this issue (check the last page for the email), not that I didn't want an email response.
[EVO 4G General] iitreatedii:
Everything is good fred that you wrote except for the part about the shift...the shift does have a faster processor, the clocked speed is just lower, that's the only difference, it still outperforms the evo though...smh with the misconceptions...
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
I know that, but they don't. I used that to my advantage by furthering my point lol
[EVO 4G General] mic.mayorga:
has anyone called and had their "data services refreshed"? saw this on 2 threads now with people saying it solved the problem... im curious
[EVO 4G General] CheesyNutz:
i have not is that something sprint will have to do or something i can
[EVO 4G General] 4redstars:
I have and it helped for all of two days, but things never quite got up to where they used to be. I'm going on more than a month where I have to use 1x where my 3G speeds used to fly
[EVO 4G General] kenifer:
Try this!! it worked for me!!

check this thread, i did this and the speed diff is huge!!!http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=922978
[EVO 4G General] iitreatedii:
All they can do is swap your phone so guess what, screw sprint and they're bad network, my phone has a scratch on it...guess what!, going for the return because "this is the problem" and walking out with an Evo without scratches, I'll make sure of it :). The guy on technical support told me that I was right, i have the most densely populated area he has ever seen and i only have 4 or 5 towers. Im from Long Island New York which is house next to house next to house. Shizzzzz ain't right man, just ain't right, @fred---good lol I was hoping
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
I agree. We're paying them. It's not our fault that they can't properly sustain a large network. I mean, they're nowhere near as large as Verizon or AT&T, and if they had any ambition to grow, they would have been ready. They could at least lie to us if they wanted and told us that they are overcapacity. But no, we just have "too many apps".
[EVO 4G General] LargePrime:
the answer for the extra data charges seems to be to change the ESN of your smart phone to a feature phone.

Oddly my speeds have been better recently. I adveraged over 1.5 mb last night
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
That doesn't make sense, at least not how you said it. Your ESN number represents your account number (Electronic Subscriber Number), not the phone itself. The phone has an MEID (similar to IMEI).

Sent from my PC36100
[EVO 4G General] :
okay, driving from chicago to toledo for the weekend on route 20. most of the way on 1x. suddenly get 3g then full bars of 3g! see a tower on the side of the road, right there. passed within 50 yards, full bars no obstructions, in rural indiana...

347kbps down, 153kbps up, latency 323ms

??????????
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
Guys, I got an email response back from the dude. Ill post it in a while. I'm almost on campus. I'm not too thrilled with his response.

Sent from my PC36100
[EVO 4G General] CheesyNutz:
probably the same normal scripted response
[EVO 4G General] iitreatedii:
how many times does this have to be said...BARS DO NOT!!!! REPRESENT 3G SERIVE WHATSOEVER....THAT IS YOUR CELL PHONE RECEPTION FOR MAKING CALLS AND RECEIVING TEXT MESSAGES, sorry for the caps but i have said this soooo many times
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
Definitely a scripted response. He totally sidestepped my questions. I said:

1) "Rather than imposing limits and overage charges on data plans for wireless phones as competitors have done, Sprint has extended its $10 Premium Data add-on charge to all smartphone activations."

...It was always marketed as Unlimited data with no restrictions or data caps. So now we're paying for Unlimited^2?

2) I said that it's not fair for people who weren't paying the fee before, but replace their phone due to damage and who don't pay for insurance. So even if I get a loaner from my friend or my drawer, once I activate it, I have to start paying $10 more for the same exact service.

3) I mentioned lack of transparency about the data issue and how none of us have received compensation. And he totally ignored that part.

Stay class Sprint.
[EVO 4G General] brownhornet:
Regardless, if he was only 50 yards from a tower there's no way the speed should've been that pathetic.
[EVO 4G General] iitreatedii:
lol that's too funny
[EVO 4G General] :
wrong. im on cyanogen on which BARS REPRESENT DATA SIGNAL STRENGTH!
[EVO 4G General] :
rural Ohio with i assume no network congestion... 1000kbps down, 800kbps up, 130ms ping consistently
[EVO 4G General] CheesyNutz:
im in ohio and that really good for the speeds i have been gettting
[EVO 4G General] GatoEnFuego:
I've used that excuse a few times also... No worries, your "missed texts" secrets are safe with us. ;)
[EVO 4G General] pottyvick:
These speeds actually make me want to switch... :(
[EVO 4G General] GatoEnFuego:
I already switched... *cough* Verizon PRL *cough*
[EVO 4G General] :
yeah i got great speeds in the country but now that im in Toledo they're back to being slow :(
[EVO 4G General] 4redstars:
just got off the phone with sprint for the 4th time in the past month. As they have stated on the calls there have been consistent tower outages. My 3G is virtually unusable.

Everytime I call they reprovision my phone after I tell them I've already done it.

I loved Sprint's service, I love the customer service. The people on the other end of the phone are usually the nicest cs people I've ever spoken to but this service just sucks and I've never had problems before...

I'm getting fed up.
[EVO 4G General] :
i assume the network difference is that verizon is backed by fiber (fios rollout in big cities) and sprints network still uses t1 copper as a backbone? :(
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
You know ironically if I stand in front of the Verizon building by my house, I can get around 1 Mb down lol.
[EVO 4G General] mikel719:
If I use the verizon prl, will it account for data roaming or call roaming as well?
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
Both.

Sent from my PC36100
[EVO 4G General] :
both free of charge as far as i know on sprint, but they terminate your contract for excessive data roaming eventually
[EVO 4G General] sitlet:
I don't think so. If that were the case, network speeds would always be bad. Mine were fine for the past 5 years up until this past November
[EVO 4G General] Moricon:
Wireless networks use whatever the can. Many sites are still copper. Some are all fiber. Most are a mix of both. There are also microwave hops both long and short haul reach.

This is what I work in everyday so take it for what it is worth. Fiber for the wireless carriers really in not about speed. T-1 speed for the most part is just that. Its reliability that is the huge differance in copper vs fiber.

Oh also the are other AAVs (alt. access vendors) such as cable companies that many carriers are working with.
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
I'm getting 1.5 Mbps down around the outside of my house and in a few blocks radius. I'm not sure if it's going to stay this way since this has happened several times before, only to back down to 300 kbps.
[EVO 4G General] aimbdd:
Yeah... mine went up to 800 kbps today.
[EVO 4G General] mic.mayorga:
its gotta be something with traffic. i ran an RUU last night and went back to the latest sprint prl. 5:00 am i was up watching the news with all the tsunami stuff running speedtests a lotttt. i was pulling 1meg down on the sprint prl. as soon as i woke up today it went back to **** because people were awake and using the network. thats the only logical thing I can think of
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
Whatever the reason, it's their responsibility to be able to run a network. We're paying money for speed we're not getting. They even go so far as to call it "premium data". They don't even use capacity as an excuse. They jut say they don't know what's going on. Instead using money to fix towers, they pay new customers money (yes, they pay new customers) to switch to a network that can't even support its current userbase!

Read: http://mobile.engadget.com/2011/03/...-50-and-125-service-credits-for-number-ports/
[EVO 4G General] mic.mayorga:
this is getting out of hand. i dont know what to do. the guys at my local sprint store are awesome and knowledgeable. ill be sure to ask them if they know whats up. they're straight shooters, theyll tell me if they know anything
[EVO 4G General] Hrshycro:
Cool. I'd like that amount as a porting my number away present. ;)
[EVO 4G General] brownhornet:
For those that actually do get 4G, have your speeds increased on 4G also? There was a time when I could get 10-12 megs down on 4G at the bar I go to after work but as of lately I havent been able to get more than 3 megs down.
[EVO 4G General] 2k4mach:
nope, i use to get 5-6meg, now i see 512k-2meg at most
[EVO 4G General] brownhornet:
I meant decreased up above. But damn this pretty much means its not only the 3G speeds but the 4G speeds too. Damn VZW is looking better and better everyday.
[EVO 4G General] CheesyNutz:
i think monday when i get my call back im going to demand gold status and a NEW evo since my replacement was a refurbed !

my contracts up in 2 months so if not im jumping

i pay 210 a month for 5 lines ! 210 x12 = 2520 a year NOT counting any upgrade i might get
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
I missed a call today from the dude, so I have to call back Monday. I hate that he couldn't say in the voicemail what the problem was or if it was solved.

Oh guys, PS I magically am a Premier customer now, except that they haven't split it into Gold and Silver yet (they will on April 1st) and I will probably be Silver given the qualifications. Count me in for demanding Gold after this issue. Oh and this is after I was told by numerous reps that I don't qualify for either level.
[EVO 4G General] jblazea50:
I am going to be a Silver Premiere since my 4-line family shared plan is the 1500 minutes one. When I talked to Lori Kohler from Sprint, she said in order to meet the Gold status, I need to move to the 3000 minute plan. My total monthly payment is approximately $210, yet I don't qualify for the Gold.

She also told me that if I want to get the yearly update, I can move the plan to the 3000 minutes one for 3 months and that'll enable the Gold status. Once I get the upgrades, I can switch back to the lower plan.
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
Yeah, but the price difference times 3 months would totally nullify the discount you'd be getting from a new phone. Plus the discount only applies to the first line on the account, I hope you know that. She's ripping you off.
[EVO 4G General] iitreatedii:
Really so then which bars represent signal call strength?
[EVO 4G General] jblazea50:
Oh yeah, I know that. That's why I'm not going to be doing that. For 3 months, that'll be $120 extra at $40/month so that totally negates the saving.

Anyway, I have still gotten no resolution to my horrendous 3G speeds in my house. I contacted then on Feb 25 and still nothing. How long will this process go on and if no resolution, what can they actually offer?

I feel like they are robbing us.
[EVO 4G General] donnyespo:
I think data transmissions differs at times
[EVO 4G General] mykeldrip:
can someone copy and paste their log so us with one million ip's can copy and paste to ours?
[EVO 4G General] geeserver:
Phoenix Metro sucks for Sprint. Its slow all the time for me. I'm all over the east side (Cave Creek to Queen Creek) and its slow in between. I live in Tempe, it sucks. I was in north Scottsdale today and it sucks. So the network here in Phoenix Metro just sucks. Now I wish I haven't told people to get the EVO cause now they are slowing down the network for me.

Sprint just need more trunk lines to there cell sites.
[EVO 4G General] foghorn67:
I called Sprint CS, and they routed me to tech support. They confirmed there is a large outage of 3G services in my area. I live in Anaheim, and they said both Compton and Santa Ana was out (probably where the actual data connection is routed on an Anaheim tower).

Downloaded the Signal Strength Widget to confirm. It's showing 1x. Same with my roommate's EVO. Same with his gf's EVO Shift.

3G is a goner. They said they have an ETA of 2/17 for the 3G to be restored in the area. It's been out since the 7th.

I am positive 3G has been out for folks in South LA, North OC.

I'm sure it has to do with expanding the data capabilities for their network. A lot of towers are getting new data lines/fiber connections.

I don't have high hopes of it getting it done on time. I have been part of several huge IT/network projects, and anything can go wrong. Multiple projects, multiple vendors, project managers, etc.
[EVO 4G General] radiohead_freak:
they throttle me like that when i abuse the network (2gb's in one day lol)

update your profile, and leave your battery out for 10-20 minutes, that always helps me
[EVO 4G General] GatoEnFuego:
I'm going to Verizon... I can't take this anymore. The only thing i use this supposed "smartphone" for is to listen to streaming audio at work. The data speeds are so piss poor that I can't even do that anymore. I give up. Peace out Sprint and your joke of a network. Anyone want to buy a slightly used (always screen protected and cased) rooted EVO 003 hardware for $350?
[EVO 4G General] muppetman462:
Ok, I'm going to toss on my nOOb hat here and ask a question or 2.

1) is the file systems/ ect/ hosts instead of host?

2) I have root explorer, but never messed around with it. Do I have to mount r/w before looking/editing this file?

Thanks
[EVO 4G General] tmwilsoniv:
I have suspected that Sprint/Clear has been throttling my Netflix connection for a couple of months now. 2-3 gb's in an evening was the norm. I used to be able to watch in full H.D. That seems like a distant memory. Just getting the highest "Sub-H.D." stream is nearly impossible. The Neflix speed test confirms a quality level, fills the buffer, and the movie begins as normal. However, when the buffer needs a top-off, the movie is interrupted, the quality setting drops to a lower level, the buffer is refilled and maintained with a few similar interruptions for the remainder of the movie.

This may be a case of throttling or simply a coincidence, but I wont be calling Sprint to ask if they are throttling my Netflix connection. Keep in mind that any and all ISP providers are well within their rights to throttle any server at any time (see Comcast vs. FCC).
[EVO 4G General] brownhornet:
They do. I posted the exact thing about netflix when I was tethering on here. Speed would be fine initially then all of nowhere out of the blue the bandwidth would drop to a ridiculously low speed.
[EVO 4G General] dtr145r:
i think sprint is throttling speeds with their prl's

i was getting 15-20 kbps download

i changed to a modified prl and now im getting 1700-2200 kbps download

the only bad part itis, its always roaming..
[EVO 4G General] brownhornet:
That means its a Verizon PRL you're using and you're actually using their data not Sprints. Better beware with that.. Sprint will cut you off after a while.
[EVO 4G General] NYCguy2020:
I started doing the same thing yesterday.i can't take sprint's horrible data speeds anymore and i don't care if they cut me off,actually i would love for them to terminate my contract.

Lately their service have been nothing but crap and i'm not sure i can stick around for another 17 months(with these current conditions) till my contract is up.
[EVO 4G General] brownhornet:
I know the feeling.... trust me.
[EVO 4G General] radiowatcher_06:
Ditto, Im up to 6 gigs Verizon for the month so far.
[EVO 4G General] sitlet:
Me too. My data speeds went to hell in november. Before that, it was great. But since then, i cant get more than 100kbps on sprint's 3g, no matter where I go. I've had the phone replaced 5 times by the store, and it hasn't helped. When I switch to the verizon prl, I get 2 Mbps down and 1Mbps up, consistently. This obviously shows its a network problem with sprint, but I dont know why it happens everywhere I travel to, and I dont know why my friend's evo and other friends with other sprint phones dont have this problem.

So like you all, I dont care if I get flagged for too much roaming. I pay 90 a month, plus the 10 bucks for premium data like all of you, and I'm getting dial-up speeds. If sprint refuses to acknowledge the problem, I'll just keep roaming on verizon.
[EVO 4G General] makojr:
Lol, yeah I bet some women do stay in the kitchen..... and make sandwiches for lazy guys like you, who probably can't do it themselves. For someone who makes a dumb comment like that obviously has no smarts. Have you browsed xda and actually read posts? Most the dumb comments are made by some dumb men. Not all men just saying. I apologize that I'd rather mess with my smartphone then cater in the kitchen.

But, getting back on topic, I have also had decreased speed in 3G in the Florida area and thought it was just my phone. I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one going through this. I haven't contacted Sprint yet as they will not admit to anything and claim everything is ok..has anyone found a reason behind this problem yet?
[EVO 4G General] tmwilsoniv:
I'm not sure if Sprint/Clear is throttling my Netflix after all. There are far too many variables to control to know for sure, but my Netflix is back and working flawlessly. I'm also surfing the web (typing this) as I watch.

I did did the old soft re-set re-activation, update PRL then profiles. All is well.
[EVO 4G General] GatoEnFuego:
Went to the Verizon PRL... FINALLY!

Averaging 50-150kbs on Sprint, now i'm getting 800-1300 on Verizon.

I could care less if they cancel my account, then I'll have an ESN free Evo to sell and move to Verizon in time for the Thunderbolt.

If you're fed up with Sprint, I suggest this mod. ;)
[EVO 4G General] mattykinsx:
It seems very odd to me that there would be such an easy way to get out of the ETF.

There has to be something negative about this.

It just cannot be that easy.
[EVO 4G General] brownhornet:
Not really... not yet anyways. However, they will probably pick up on the fact that more and more people are doing it to get out of contract lol.
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
Well yesterday I got home at like 6 and was able to get like 1.5 Mb down from in front of my house. I ran a SpeedTest 2 hours ago today (3 pm EST) and got 900 kbps - 1 Mbps down, which isn't bad considering that's peak hours on a Saturday. Capacity might be an issue since I'm seeing a lot of ordinary people carrying Evos around (I've only ever seen 3 people with an Epic, ever :p).
[EVO 4G General] augoza:
Thats precisely what they made me do. Worked for me.
[EVO 4G General] mic.mayorga:
didnt do shiz for me
[EVO 4G General] gpz1100:
Fred, this might be of interest to you.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r25555923-MARCH-2011-4G-WiMax-Speeds

Specifically the posts by "Criggs" requesting full month credits for inability to deliver advertised service.
[EVO 4G General] Product F(RED):
Ha! If I ask for that, that'll probably take care of most of my bill. I'll be honest, I'm the only one on the account who uses a lot of data (Mom, sisters don't). But a deal is a deal, so they will have to credit me for each line. Let's say they credit $10 back per month, that's 10 x 4 x 3 months = $120.
[EVO 4G General] gpz1100:
I'd be going for everything.. entire month's credit.. $80+tax. Sounds like you've been bugging them enough daily that there's enough documentation to justify it.

For all the issues i've had with the airave during the month of feb, they offered me a credit of nearly 90% of my discounted rate.