[danielcj]

Can anybody say how fast their 9900s are on Tmos 4G. Personally I feel like I don't notice a huge difference from when I was on my old 9700's 3G connection. BB bridge speeds on my playbook are the same if not slower...about 1Mbps. Is it true that RIM servers still botttleneck true 14.4Mbps that the phone is capable off? Downloading attachments etc don't seem any faster either. Do I need an updated SIM card from switching from 3G to 4G?

Thanks

[mysticmeg]

Apparently 4G is another marketing gimmick that some of the US networks have fallen for... I maybe wrong.

[adamrollins]

I bet 4G kills the battery.

[danielcj]

My battery life is actually prerty decent. Can anybody on Tmo comment on speed? Thanks.

[Gal.anonimus]

4G is a misrepresentation. If people were honest that would call it 3.5G at best.
But, than you get those non-technical MBA marketing people who believe that snowing people is a virtue and they get paid for the snowing not for the truth telling.
I just wonder what they will call it when real 4G comes.

[danielcj]

Yes, 4G is probably a misnomer and just marketing BS but I'm wondering if anybody is noticing differences between 3G vs 4G especially when tethered to the Playbook or other tablets.

[enzozenuni]

Is it faster? Depends. I tethered my 9900 to my laptop and the pages load faster compared to the 9780. Its not a huge of a difference to be noticeable when comparing both devices in complete different time frames but side by side its a tad bit faster.

[A93hunt]

I feel like a Blackberrry Vertern on Tmobile US. I came from a 8320 to a 9700 to a 9780 to now a 9900. I noticed that the 9780 tethered to my computer would give me 1-2 mbps tops. With my 9900, creating a wifi hotspot would get me a remarkable 1-9 mbps depending on where I am. I know that my 9780 never actually reached it's full radio potential, I'm not really sure why. I would imagine it has something to do with the processor. Regardless, the 9900 is a big upgrade in terms of tethering in my book.

[robby999]

I went from a bold 9000 to a 9900 last weekend. I've noticed much improved speed on att.

[danielcj]

I feel like a Blackberrry Vertern on Tmobile US. I came from a 8320 to a 9700 to a 9780 to now a 9900. I noticed that the 9780 tethered to my computer would give me 1-2 mbps tops. With my 9900, creating a wifi hotspot would get me a remarkable 1-9 mbps depending on where I am. I know that my 9780 never actually reached it's full radio potential, I'm not really sure why. I would imagine it has something to do with the processor. Regardless, the 9900 is a big upgrade in terms of tethering in my book.

Ya I came from an 8320 to 9700 and now the 9900. When you tether do you bypass RIM servers and get data straight from Tmos network? If I do a speedtest on my PB while bridged it says RIM is my server instead of Tmo. Maybe I should just tether instead.

[fazluke]

Ya I came from an 8320 to 9700 and now the 9900. When you tether do you bypass RIM servers and get data straight from Tmos network? If I do a speedtest on my PB while bridged it says RIM is my server instead of Tmo. Maybe I should just tether instead.

I am on AT&T showing H+ which is technically not a 4G and I get 1.3 Mbps using fancy speed test

[A93hunt]

Ya I came from an 8320 to 9700 and now the 9900. When you tether do you bypass RIM servers and get data straight from Tmos network? If I do a speedtest on my PB while bridged it says RIM is my server instead of Tmo. Maybe I should just tether instead.

I've always had speedtests show Tmobile. Never RIM.

[anon(1042122)]

After testing 9930 on Verizon, I wasn't really satisfied with the 3G speeds. It was not much better than 9700 on AT&T which has notoriously spotty service in NYC. Anyway, browser is surely much faster but that's due to software improvement, I am sure I can get similar results on AT&T.

So, while I am on the grace period, I am considering going with T-Mobile, but only if the network speed will be better, even if it is slightly better it will be fine because I notice that it takes a while for 9930 to buffer and finally start playing music and I do get cut-outs time to time.

[eve6er69]

Not on tmobile but I went from a 9650 to a 9900 on att and wow, I haven't had 1 video buffer since day one.

4G or 3.5G its faster than 3G period.

Sent from my BlackBerry Bold 9900 using Tapatalk

[anon(1042122)]

eve6er69, you are close to city, and thanks for the input
I just wanted to see what general consensus on 9900 vs 9930 speed-wise.
We always had great reception with T-Mobile, which is why rest of my family is still on T-Mobile and not single one of them seriously complained about it. So I was considering going back to T-Mo after 4,5 years of misery with AT&T.

Isn't 9900 same with both AT&T and T-Mobile? Running on exact same hardware, exact same 4G (3.5 HSPA+)?

[Iag48st]

I thought all the data gets routed through RIM's servers therefore really slowing down the speeds?

I asked a similar question when I had my Bold 9900 and this is what I understood.

[anon(1042122)]

Yes, they all do, but the network speed should play a role on connection between your device and RIM's servers. After all, the data still has to go through 2G/3G/3.5+G network before it can reach RIM's server. With all the subscribers RIM lost over the years, I assume the speeds should be pretty constant nowadays, if not better.

So the question is, does 9900 perform better than 9930 when it comes to streaming music, accessing online data, syncing over network, etc. It's just not worth paying nearly $40 more to Verizon for even slower speeds and less features (they charge for hotspot, they charge for visual voice mail, on top of all, they deduct minutes for access to own voice messages)

[estro22]

Can anybody say how fast their 9900s are on Tmos 4G. Personally I feel like I don't notice a huge difference from when I was on my old 9700's 3G connection. BB bridge speeds on my playbook are the same if not slower...about 1Mbps. Is it true that RIM servers still botttleneck true 14.4Mbps that the phone is capable off? Downloading attachments etc don't seem any faster either. Do I need an updated SIM card from switching from 3G to 4G?

Thanks

I'm on 4G [not T-Mobile] and while tethering I get 5-8 Mb download speed.

[fazluke]

Isn't 9900 same with both AT&T and T-Mobile? Running on exact same hardware, exact same 4G (3.5 HSPA+)?

No "4G" frequencies are not the same, if you switch, you will need a T-Mobile version of the 9900

[anon(1042122)]

Thanks Fazluke,
I thought that would matter if you were going from AT&T with an LTE phone to T-Mo, which won't get you 4G, may not even get you 3G if not compatible.

But 9900 should be the same animal on both networks since 9900 only supports certain bands, and since both are GSM, it should be the same, as far as I know.

9900:
UMTS: 2100/1900/850/800 MHz or 2100/1700/900 MHz
GSM/GPRS/EDGE: 850/900/1800/1900
HSDPA: 14.4 Mbps
HSUPA: 5.76 Mbps

So if you can use the unlocked pure 9900 on both networks, I don't really see why you cannot take one from AT&T and use it on T-Mobile and still get similar "4G" (HSPA+ speeds)

[Rootbrian]

Speed doesn't always matter, it's the ping. If it's 256 ms or less, it's super excellent, if it's 512, 786, 1024 or more ms, it'll be horribly slow and laggy. I'm telling you, this is from experience. Dial-up has a bad ping, cellular data is almost to basically the same. Telus has 256 ms, rogers is between 128 and 500 on good and bad days, bell is basically the same and wind has 400-800 ms as the ping. In miliseconds.

Speed, that's different. You could tether or use mobile hotspot and use speedtest.net and make sure the measurement is in Kilobytes to get an accurate reading. Pingtest.net to also measure the quality.