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Turning on HSDPA?

I've seen screenshots of Captivates homescreens from you peoples showing an H instead of just 3G. May I ask how you enabled this? Thanks in advance!
John J.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

HSDPA and 3G are the same thing (i'm pretty sure)
or more technically speaking, HSDPA is one half of 3G, with HSUPA being the other half (HSDPA=download, HSUPA=upload)...
can anybody correct me if i'm wrong?

You're correct. AT&T requires all its 3G phone to display 3G instead of any other icon. Often times, ppl find ways to replace it with the native 3G icon, H, which is widely used by rest of the world. But that makes no difference in actual connection speed.

Lucke said:
HSDPA and 3G are the same thing (i'm pretty sure)
or more technically speaking, HSDPA is one half of 3G, with HSUPA being the other half (HSDPA=download, HSUPA=upload)...
can anybody correct me if i'm wrong?
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this is correct. when referring to both of them together they are commonly called just HSPA.

Lucke said:
HSDPA and 3G are the same thing (i'm pretty sure)
or more technically speaking, HSDPA is one half of 3G, with HSUPA being the other half (HSDPA=download, HSUPA=upload)...
can anybody correct me if i'm wrong?
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Click to collapse
"3G" is the common short abbreviation for UMTS. HSDPA is an update to UMTS that gives faster download speeds (a version is widely deployed on AT&T). HSUPA is a protocol upgrade that enables faster upload speeds (installing HSUPA equipment borked upload speed on AT&T recently). Combining the two is called HSPA. HSPA+ is an update to HSPA that's even faster. T-Mobile is planning on rolling this out. LTE (AT&T's 4G pathway) is totally unrelated to HSPA.

Thanks for your replies! I appreciate the schooling
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I897 using XDA App

Drachen said:
"3G" is the common short abbreviation for UMTS. HSDPA is an update to UMTS that gives faster download speeds (a version is widely deployed on AT&T). HSUPA is a protocol upgrade that enables faster upload speeds (installing HSUPA equipment borked upload speed on AT&T recently). Combining the two is called HSPA. HSPA+ is an update to HSPA that's even faster. T-Mobile is planning on rolling this out. LTE (AT&T's 4G pathway) is totally unrelated to HSPA.
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This is the correct post.
Also, I'm certain AT&T doesn't disallow the H icon because I've seen screenshots of the Captivate with that icon.
However, at the same time, I have a -51 dBm signal and no HSUPA which I know I should be able to get here because my iPhone 4 got it. Something is going on, but I'm not sure what yet.
Edit: Nevermind, it sounds like I'm wrong. In the manual there's no mention of an H icon. There's also no mention of HSUPA. I think we just got screwed by AT&T. What a surprise.

AJerman said:
This is the correct post.
Also, I'm certain AT&T doesn't disallow the H icon because I've seen screenshots of the Captivate with that icon.
However, at the same time, I have a -51 dBm signal and no HSUPA which I know I should be able to get here because my iPhone 4 got it. Something is going on, but I'm not sure what yet.
Edit: Nevermind, it sounds like I'm wrong. In the manual there's no mention of an H icon. There's also no mention of HSUPA. I think we just got screwed by AT&T. What a surprise.
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I'm pretty sure AT&T does disallow use of the H icon. They did on my Fuze. The reason is that there's ALWAYS confusion when people don't have a good operational knowledge of the protocol names. There's always someone on the EnergyROM or Cyanogenmod threads asking why "only" H comes up when they expect 3G.
Anyway, I have an AT&T band Nexus One as well as a Captivate. The N1 is definitely HSUPA compatible. I just tried speedtest.net a few times and got an average of 2.5M down and 175k up (5 runs no run over 256k) in midtown Manhattan. On my Captivate I'm getting ~4M down and 200k up. Upload speeds are about the same, probably limited by AT&T's current (under) capability.
I don't have access to an iPhone 4, but if you do, could you do a few runs on the speedtest.net app on both devices from the same location and let us know the results? At this point, I'm pretty convinced it's the HSUPA equipment screw-up at AT&T not lack of HSUPA on the phone.

Drachen said:
I'm pretty sure AT&T does disallow use of the H icon. They did on my Fuze. The reason is that there's ALWAYS confusion when people don't have a good operational knowledge of the protocol names. There's always someone on the EnergyROM or Cyanogenmod threads asking why "only" H comes up when they expect 3G.
Anyway, I have an AT&T band Nexus One as well as a Captivate. The N1 is definitely HSUPA compatible. I just tried speedtest.net a few times and got an average of 2.5M down and 175k up (5 runs no run over 256k) in midtown Manhattan. On my Captivate I'm getting ~4M down and 200k up. Upload speeds are about the same, probably limited by AT&T's current (under) capability.
I don't have access to an iPhone 4, but if you do, could you do a few runs on the speedtest.net app on both devices from the same location and let us know the results? At this point, I'm pretty convinced it's the HSUPA equipment screw-up at AT&T not lack of HSUPA on the phone.
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That's what I was saying. My iPhone 4 got HSUPA here with no issue at all. When everyone else's HSUPA had issues, I still had no problem at all. So unless HSUPA decided to die in my area the day I returned my iPhone 4, I don't think the Captivate has it.

AJerman said:
That's what I was saying. My iPhone 4 got HSUPA here with no issue at all. When everyone else's HSUPA had issues, I still had no problem at all. So unless HSUPA decided to die in my area the day I returned my iPhone 4, I don't think the Captivate has it.
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When did you return it? The iPhone 4 was released on June 24 and the AT&T HSUPA issue cropped up around July 6th or so. That's when my Nexus went from over ~1M up to ~200k up. If you gave it up after July 6, what sort of upload speeds were you getting? What sort of speeds are you getting now on the Captivate? Not trying to grill you or anything, I'm genuinely curious.

htc inspire with FAKE hspa+ ??

i have not seen 1 video anywhere showing htc inspire getting REAL hspa+ speed!
my samsung captivate with regular hspa getting better (higher) speed!

I am pretty sure that AT&T hasn't turned on their backhaul yet

JCreazy said:
I am pretty sure that AT&T hasn't turned on their backhaul yet
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then why sent out hspa+ phone (inspire) for bloggers to review when hspa+ is not ready yet!
that is like car company sent out new cars (next year model) to reviewers but without the key! cus the engine is not ready yet?

I think the main purpose is to get the phone out and reviewed before the iPhone 4 goes to verizon. I personally care about battery life and os before it being faster than my current technology.

onthezone said:
I think the main purpose is to get the phone out and reviewed before the iPhone 4 goes to verizon. I personally care about battery life and os before it being faster than my current technology.
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most people want this phone cus it' HSPA+ otherwise if you just care about battery or OS, just get a phone with 1500mzh battery (samsung captivate). haha

Myself could care less about the network speed. Theres a lot more I like about this phone than hsdpa+

HSPA+ is a touchy subject these days. As we all know, all HSPA phones benefit when AT&T and T-Mobile increase their network speeds and backhaul. It really comes down to network congestion and how far away from a tower you are.
I have a friend who's on T-Mobile who gets better download speeds at his work (about 3 miles away from mine) with his Nexus One than I do with my HSPA+ capable T-Mobile G2.
Most older phones are capable of HSPA speeds up to 7 Mbps. So until T-Mobile and AT&T crank up the download speeds to 21 or 42 Mbps, most people will not see much of a difference between HSPA+ phones which are labeled as "4G" and your run-of-the-mill 3G handset.

so it' another ATT BS lie?
on att.com it said "evolve faster with speeds up to 4x faster* then at&t's already fast mobile broadband network"
i have not seen 1 speedtest anywhere that shows inspire able to get real hspa+ speed!
how you know it' not another samsung? (get it? samsung with fake gps, htc inspire with fake hspa+)

I think it hspa+ capable. Yes ATT 4g is probably not fully launched. I also dont get why a 4g phone is released without 4g speed. I get dl speed of 3mbps in Houston. Houston has very good ATT service. Very consistent all areas in Houston. I am very curious how consistent 4g is here in Houston. However when we have 4g it will be a upgrade from 3g. I was planning to wait for the phone til its offered for free. I just don't have the urge to replace my N1.
Sent from my Nexus One using XDA App

netnerd said:
so it' another ATT BS lie?
on att.com it said "evolve faster with speeds up to 4x faster* then at&t's already fast mobile broadband network"
i have not seen 1 speedtest anywhere that shows inspire able to get real hspa+ speed!
how you know it' not another samsung? (get it? samsung with fake gps, htc inspire with fake hspa+)
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The problem is the phone is definetly capable of the faster speeds it is just that AT&T at this time does not offer those speeds. Even with their 3G phones, the phones are very much capable of faster speeds then AT&T networks are putting out.

nickmgray said:
HSPA+ is a touchy subject these days. As we all know, all HSPA phones benefit when AT&T and T-Mobile increase their network speeds and backhaul. It really comes down to network congestion and how far away from a tower you are.
I have a friend who's on T-Mobile who gets better download speeds at his work (about 3 miles away from mine) with his Nexus One than I do with my HSPA+ capable T-Mobile G2.
Most older phones are capable of HSPA speeds up to 7 Mbps. So until T-Mobile and AT&T crank up the download speeds to 21 or 42 Mbps, most people will not see much of a difference between HSPA+ phones which are labeled as "4G" and your run-of-the-mill 3G handset.
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exactly when the HSPA+ gets going all phones 3G and up should see a speed increase.

doctahjeph said:
The problem is the phone is definetly capable of the faster speeds it is just that AT&T at this time does not offer those speeds. Even with their 3G phones, the phones are very much capable of faster speeds then AT&T networks are putting out.
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and the samsung galaxy S (captivate) is definitely capable of gps navigation cus it has a gps chip? or maybe the bigger problem is htc inspire has defective hspa+ !!

netnerd said:
and the samsung galaxy S (captivate) is definitely capable of gps navigation cus it has a gps chip? or maybe the bigger problem is htc inspire has defective hspa+ !!
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netnerd said:
and the samsung galaxy S (captivate) is definitely capable of gps navigation cus it has a gps chip? or maybe the bigger problem is htc inspire has defective hspa+ !!
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lol, no. I am pretty sure it is AT&T's network. You believe what you want though.

doctahjeph said:
lol, no. I am pretty sure it is AT&T's network. You believe what you want though.
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there' a word for that, it' call Denial

netnerd said:
there' a word for that, it' call Denial
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Obvious troll is obvious.
Maybe you should wait for the phone to come out before talking smack about it. Let's see how things pan out after the thing officially launches.

Ok guys arguing about this is pointless. Lets all calm down. Most times when The phones are sent out for review they are just that "Phone Reviews". When the network updates are ready then they will most likely due a new review comparing the 4G networks. There is alot more to a phone then how fast the connection is with the cell provider that can sway some one to decide to buy the phone.
As I can see this as heading to the flame war section I am gonna close this up now.

4g speeds

hi im a noob here,is there a way to speed up my 4g

Roms and Kernels........check them out. they help with speed, features, and just overall use of the phone in my OP.

signking said:
hi im a noob here,is there a way to speed up my 4g
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No. The network is almost always the limiting factor here in terms of data speeds.
Right now the stock Froyo ROMs (which use the stock RIL and APN) provide the fastest data speeds.
Gingerbread ROMs provide a lot of new features but at the penalty of data speeds in some areas because the Rogers RIL doesn't always play nice with AT&T's network. (I see no difference, but I'm in a semirural area that has always had slow data speeds, we only got 3G 2-3 years ago.)

Entropy512 said:
No. The network is almost always the limiting factor here in terms of data speeds.
Right now the stock Froyo ROMs (which use the stock RIL and APN) provide the fastest data speeds.
Gingerbread ROMs provide a lot of new features but at the penalty of data speeds in some areas because the Rogers RIL doesn't always play nice with AT&T's network. (I see no difference, but I'm in a semirural area that has always had slow data speeds, we only got 3G 2-3 years ago.)
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This + 1
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997R using XDA App

You can switch to a carrier with an actual 4G network.
Sent from my Infuse 4G

MikeyMike01 said:
You can switch to a carrier with an actual 4G network.
Sent from my Infuse 4G
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No you can't. Not a single carrier meets the original 4G definition.
Verizon LTE is the closest (by a long shot), but it's still not 4G, it's 3.9G.

11mbit down 1.5mbit up
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using XDA Premium App

Why is a 4G phone getting 3G speeds

So on my phone It says 3G at the top. Sometimes. It says H. But I have miui Tom currently and probably forever? Most of the time when I wana download something from the market I have to pull down the drop down menu and turn off the data icon and turn it back on to refresh the data. Wait for a few seconds and let it work again. I have no problems texting and receiving them. Or browsing the internet. But for the market I'm having to refresh the data. Wondering if there is anything I could do
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda premium

the lack of an h or 4g is just indicating that you dont have a hspa connection which has more to do with your area than your phone. the infuse is a 3g device but t-mo started advertising the hspa+ as 4g and att followed. it still operates on the same network and technology as 3g but is faster. 4g is lte (which the infuse doesn't have.) or wimax i guess but that is crappy sprint 4g that is not faster than att 3g and is only deserving of the 4g title because it is literally there 4th generation data network, not because it is actually comperable.
in other countries h and h+ are refered to as 3.5g and/or 3g+ because it is not truely a new generation of network, just 3g made faster.
the market problem is probably do to it being a i9000 port. i dont know what the nature of the bug is but it shows on the i9000 roms and i havent run an aosp rom so i dont know if it is normal for miui or not.

Dani897 said:
the lack of an h or 4g is just indicating that you dont have a hspa connection which has more to do with your area than your phone. the infuse is a 3g device but t-mo started advertising the hspa+ as 4g and att followed. it still operates on the same network and technology as 3g but is faster. 4g is lte (which the infuse doesn't have.) or wimax i guess but that is crappy sprint 4g that is not faster than att 3g and is only deserving of the 4g title because it is literally there 4th generation data network, not because it is actually comperable.
in other countries h and h+ are refered to as 3.5g and/or 3g+ because it is not truely a new generation of network, just 3g made faster.
the market problem is probably do to it being a i9000 port. i dont know what the nature of the bug is but it shows on the i9000 roms and i havent run an aosp rom so i dont know if it is normal for miui or not.
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Ohh OK. So 4G doesn't mean 4G speeds. It means 4th generation. As in new. I always thought 4G meant speed 4 ghz or something of high speed data. Something to do with speed. Now that I think of it. G stands for Generation. Anyway thanks
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda premium

technokid said:
Ohh OK. So 4G doesn't mean 4G speeds. It means 4th generation. As in new. I always thought 4G meant speed 4 ghz or something of high speed data. Something to do with speed. Now that I think of it. G stands for Generation. Anyway thanks
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda premium
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The speeds do get faster as the generations progresses, but actual 4g speeds were supposed to be 100mb lol that failed haha. Anyway the market problem happens to me too. If you search apns in CM7 or the MIUI forum there is a fix. I applied it before, and it worked. I am just too lazy to do it again because for me it is not that big of a pain lol.

You won't always have 4G speeds. It's more like 3G+ lol. HSPA+. Get it? Lol if you want 4G speeds for LTE
Sent from Optimus-Prime's Asus Transformer.

Seriously? Another dumb post about phones not getting 4g. Some 4g phones have h and some have 3g icons. Read other threads and maybe you will learn something for once in your life.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997 using xda premium

Ryanscool said:
The speeds do get faster as the generations progresses, but actual 4g speeds were supposed to be 100mb lol that failed haha. Anyway the market problem happens to me too. If you search apns in CM7 or the MIUI forum there is a fix. I applied it before, and it worked. I am just too lazy to do it again because for me it is not that big of a pain lol.
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Thanks I'll look That uhp
Sent from my SGH-I997 using xda premium

I heard somewhere that MIUI doesn't support 4G the same as the stock ROM. When I used MIUI I got slower speeds than stock. Not significantly slower, but "meh" speeds. Otherwise there isn't much of a difference, it only switched to actual "4G" when you're downloading something anyway..

4G questions - Bell vs T-Mo vs others

Hi,
I always have long and complicated questions to ask, so I usually don't get much help, probably cause I'm Canadian
I have Bell Sensation 4G. It operates on HSPA+ from what I understand. It's a "sort of" 4G.
Anyways, when I run ICS ARHD, I get H symbol. Yes, I've talked about this topic a lot, but in other aspects. Now I'm just curious about the other phones in US, and if I am actually connected to "4G" networks.
What I want to get to the bottom of is I see mentions a lot of the T-Mobile 4G sensation. Is this specifically because all other Sensations on other US carriers are not 4G capable? Or are every one of them exactly the same, and operate on the same network type (HSPA+)? Essentially making them all the exact same networks and speeds as my Bell unit?
The reason I ask is I'm pissing around with the H, H+, 4G, etc. png icon files in the "systemUI.apk". Just trying to learn what's going on behind the scenes.
I note in there that the files are named as such
"H" icons are named as files like "stat_sys_data_connected_h.png".
"H+" icons are named as files like "stat_sys_data_connected_hplus.png".
Being that on ARHD, "H+" is never used. I am now wondering if I am even connected to HSPA+. I mean, if US carriers other than TMO don't use HSPA+ then that would be reasonable that the standard US based ROM isn't setup to properly connect to the Canadian network? The icon files are there, but they are not being used, so is it because I am not on 4G, because other US phones dont get 4G? Flashing the TMO option gives me the same thing, so maybe because our networks are different?
I understand that there is a mod to switch the TMO version to "4G" icon. But is that simply switching the icon names? Yeah cool I can do that and give myself "H+" icons to make myself happy, but I'd really just like to know if I am even connected to the proper network speeds, and it all has something to do with the radio version and ROM. (afterall, I did fix my 350ms PING to Speedtest.net by flashing stock Bell RUU, so it further makes me think I am not on correct network speeds, rather than just an icon issue)

If you're asking if you're still getting 4g, yes you are.... That is if your phone is capable of 4g... I have tmo sensation 4g and have the H icon... The speed is the same.... No changes at all... I can flash the 4g icon but decided not to... H don't bother me at all since there are no changes in the speed... Sorry if I misunderstand your question in any way, it was just too long to read and I'm getting cross eyed
Some phones in the US don't have 4g capabilities... Usually the older once...
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4g with Beats Audio

I know it's too long to read but I don't know how else to explain it, and make it shorter. I just am wondering if T-Mobile 4G HSPA+ is exactly the same as Bell 4G HSPA+?
Put it this way...with ARHD 6.5.x ICS, am I getting the same 4G as I would be with the stock Bell Canada RUU? Everything seems centered around T-Mo 4G, nobody ever talks about Bell 4G!

In my opinion, it depends how strong hspa in your area... I don't think Rom or the phone matters, as long as it can accept hspa signals.... It might matter with the radio thoughh... Don't worry about the long explanation, it was just me thats the problem ...
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4g with Beats Audio

I have seen so many posts and threads here saying H icon is for 4g connection. I am from UK we don't have 4g yet its all 3g still my sensation shows me H icon. On my old Nokia n97 it was showing 3.5g ? It's really confusing.
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using xda premium

The connection that we call 4g ( atleast with tmo) is actually 3.5g. I'm not sure with the LTE technology though....
There's three different 4g types, fastest is LTE then hspa and last WiMAX.... So when you see H its considered 4g as for hspa
Sent from my HTC Sensation 4g with Beats Audio

T-Mo doesn't even have much of any hspa+ in the first place... if you look in network settings on the phone, it almost always says hsdpa and never hspa+... along with hspa+ not even being close to 4G.

I came across this when trying to make sure I am doing it right. When installing ARHD it asks if I have a tmobile sensation 4g - I have an unlocked Bell/Virgin Mobile one and have been hitting yes. It seems to work okay, but should I be saying yes to that, or no, because it is a Bell/Virgin one with different bands? Is it just to get the graphical band display? Does it have any impact on performance or the radio?