How fast is your 4G on T-Mobile?

Just got my 9900 yesterday and to my surprise, 4G is available at 5 bars at my house in Walnut Creek, CA (not listed in the 4G supported cities).

So I connected to my MacBook over BT DUN and ran a speedtest at speakeasy.net/speedtest to SF. Here are my results:

Download Speed: 460 kbps (57.5 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 363 kbps (45.4 KB/sec transfer rate)

Question 1) Doesn't seem quite as fast as 4G would lead me to believe. Is there a better way to conduct a speed test?

Question 2) I used a BT DUN profile that I think was inserted by BB Desktop for Mac, but I'm not certain. Maybe it is using my old 9700 profile, but IIRC, I should have had to enter *99# somewhere for the dialing number, which I didn't with the 9900 setup:

https://img.skitch.com/20110911-cucs...kyt49emki5.jpg

When connected, my 9900 shows "4G Modem Mode Enabled". Does that mean it's actually running over 4G?

What kind of speeds are you guys getting? TIA!

Do you really think this is real 4G?

Of course not...When I go to mobilespeedtest.com I get between 750-950 kbps on my new Tmobile 9900.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Isn't the bottleneck BIS and BT in these cases?

Thats weird I downloaded a 9mb PDF file off my blackberry at 1.2mb/s, but when i did the speed test i got 900kb/s

It must depend on where you are because T-Mobile is fast here.
My 9700 on 3G - between 2.2 - 2.4Mbps (tethered to notebook at speedtest.net)
My G2 Android - up to 5.5 Mbps (Speedtest.net app)
My HTC Sensation 4G - up to 8.1 Mbps (Speedtest.net app)

I am in South Florida

Might want to try tethering with the USB cable when running some of these tests. You're not going to get much over 2Mb as that's pretty much the limit of bluetooth transfer speeds. Once wifi sharing is available we should see some better speeds when tethering, but for now USB is the way to remove that bottleneck.

If your below 5mpbs, then your just getting 3G speeds. T-Mobiles claims to have 10-14mbps or greater (depending on where you live or use ur phone)

BT tethering is limited, it says it (on windows) when you connect.
Try running mobilespeedtest.net right off the phone, that will give you a more realistic test (run the 5 or 7MB test.)

Thanks guys. I tried mobilespeedtest directly. On the 100K test and I am getting between 500-700kbps.

When I try the 1MB test, I get about 4600kbps.

5MB I am getting 11600kbps??

7MB 15259kbps???!!!

Yes I have wifi off. And cleared my cache!

It seems absurdly fast doesn't it?

I want to try a USB tether...I'll STF for it, but if there is a handy link to a thread about USB tether on a Mac it would be appreciated!

Edit: Found the info on USB Tether for Mac

At speedtest.net I'm getting between 1-2mbps down and ~1.5mbps up.

That seems more reasonable than the mobilespeedtest results at least. And I'm pretty happy with these speeds!

Thanks!

I haven't been able to brake 10 MB/sec on AT&T so I think it is preety accurate. I had my buddy do the same test on his LTE VZW Droid and he got 13 MB/sec where he was.

It would be nice if someone here would try it on a 9700 or 9780... (7MB test)

BTW, I noticed in the printed 9900 manual that came with it, there is a listing of all of the network icons and "3G" isn't one of them. There is "4G" and then "3g" (small g), and EDGE, and GPRS, etc.

Why isn't there a "3G" with a big G?

YoungAce mentioned that if I'm getting under 5 mbps, then it's actually 3G speeds.

My results would seem to concur. And Walnut Creek, CA isn't on the listed 4G cities in the T-Mobile coverage map. Yet I have "4G" and 5 bars of it.

Is it possible that since the 9900 isn't capable of showing "3G", it just shows "4G" instead? Maybe that would explain why I've seen other complaints of poor "4G" speeds on the 9900; i.e. they were actually getting 3G!

Just a thought...

4G? pffft... I'll stick with my slow 3G thanks ;)

http://i262.photobucket.com/albums/i...LTI5LmpwZw.jpg

http://www.mobilespeedtest.com/results/11210818182.jpg

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Originally Posted by jefo13

I haven't been able to brake 10 MB/sec on AT&T so I think it is preety accurate. I had my buddy do the same test on his LTE VZW Droid and he got 13 MB/sec where he was.

It would be nice if someone here would try it on a 9700 or 9780... (7MB test)

I get 4833Kbps on a 9700 from the 2Mb test. The 5MB and 7MB won't run.

I topped out at 6500kbps on my 9780 from the 7MB test.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

T-Mobile's 4G phones usually only display a "4G" icon when in 3G or 4G areas. So the icons that you would notice are 4G, 2G or E, and G. Your manual may have been more generalized and not for the specific firmware the T-Mobile has on its phones.

Isn't that a bit misleading then? That basically means it's very possible I'm NOT in a 4G city, correlating to the T-Mobile 4G map information.

If it's not "4G", it shouldn't say it is.

I tested my old 9700 over USB and got 1.18 mbps down and .33 mbps up.

While the speed is definitely better on the 9900, it's really not that much faster than the 9700 "3G". Only the upload speed was consistently higher at ~1 mbps on the 9900.

I'm fairly convinced I'm not in a 4G area, and my phone is lying to me.:mad:

Originally Posted by 21stNow

T-Mobile's 4G phones usually only display a "4G" icon when in 3G or 4G areas. So the icons that you would notice are 4G, 2G or E, and G. Your manual may have been more generalized and not for the specific firmware the T-Mobile has on its phones.

Originally Posted by DannyAves

I get 4833Kbps on a 9700 from the 2Mb test. The 5MB and 7MB won't run.

good speed if it stays...