Los Angeles - How are your speeds?

**wifiguru** · 04-04-2012, 02:24 PM

Hello Los Angeles Sprint users!

I am thinking of switching over to Sprint (Currently on VZW).

VZW has been having some major data capacity issues (especially where I live and work), and it is getting very annoying.

How is Sprint doing in the Los Angeles metro area? I've been watching the http://network.sprint.com website (Network Vision rollout/upgrades), and it seems like they are hitting LA pretty hard...

Anybody have some results for the area? I'm mainly looking for data speeds and usability. VZW keeps dropping to 1x (due to congestion), does Sprint do the same?
Any backhaul issues?

Since they've been rolling out upgrades here, are people in the 2Mbps club?

I'm mainly looking for Burbank/Hollywood/Century City results, but downtown LA and other places would be nice to see.

Thanks!

**wifiguru** · 04-06-2012, 02:51 PM

Anybody?????

**CellKrazeDude** · 04-06-2012, 06:15 PM

Get the 4G iPhone this summer and your problems will be solved and you will be happier. LTE is super fast in LA. My friend was there for Spring Break and was getting 25-30Mbps on 4G.

**timmyh318** · 04-06-2012, 07:17 PM

how was ur friend getting 4g lte on sprint?? seeing as sprints lte network isnt live yet and to even complicate matters worse they currently offer zero lte phones i have to draw the conclusion your either lying to this man or misinformed. wimax doesnt hit those speed either. im sure l.a. is like any other sprint market. expect 3g speeds to max at around 1mbps and if they have 4g wimax in l.a. expect 2 to 6 mbps download speeds.

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**larryt510** · 04-06-2012, 07:58 PM

Originally Posted by timmyh318

im sure l.a. is like any other sprint market. expect 3g speeds to max at around 1mbps and if they have 4g wimax in l.a. expect 2 to 6 mbps download speeds.

I'm about 40 miles South of LA and have speeds up to 2 mbps on 3G and up to 8 mbps on 4G (WiMax). I can easily break 1 mbps on 3G in a number of places but more typically it is just under 1 mbps in the 700 to 950 range. Typical WiMax is about 6 mbps.

**timmyh318** · 04-06-2012, 08:08 PM

ive been breakin 1mbps here in southwest florida regularly to which is nice to see.

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**brad15** · 04-06-2012, 11:07 PM

Phoenix is still hanging around ~300k, but i've been noticing a ton of random outages and jacked up network so i'm hoping they're doing some work for NV here, it really needs it.

Anytime i go to LA or San Diego i usually get ~1.5Mbps unless im around hollywood, then i'm sitting ~700k but it's still quite usable.

**thematch** · 04-07-2012, 08:03 AM

I drive throughout most Los Angeles (mainly both valleys SGV and SFV and the downtown area). Speeds are okay. You are not dropping to 1x, but there are period where ping times and speeds can be slow. They have done quite a upgrades and are scheduled for many more. I have never exceeded .8 mb/s.

**Trocks797** · 04-07-2012, 08:45 AM

OP: are you sure it isn't your phone? I was in LA for a week in December (stayed in Burbank on Scott at a friends apartment right by the park) and never saw 1X or under ~900kbps the entire week I was there. I pulled 1.5mbps at In N Out in Burbank as well. I spent new years eve in Hollywood with also no issue. A member of this board just left LA after being there for awhile and he had this to tell me:

Verizon was very good in L.A., and I was kinda surprised.

On my iPhone, I think the slowest data I got was 800kbps, which was pretty impressive [even when I had AT&T, I'd have data slow more than that]. Most of the time it was ~1.2Mbps, which worked really well. My Nexus was pulling in speeds almost always between 9-15Mbps, so it was hard to complain about that either.

Voice was a little robotic at times, and I had dropped calls in Venice and on the 5 north of L.A. Actually, I dropped 4 calls all in the same section of the highway (near Gorman, CA) which was a little frustrating. But, I was using like ~1750 minutes a week, so I suppose 6 dropped calls wasn't too bad considering the volume of use.

Before you jump through hoops to port over, make sure your phone isn't the culprit.

**Extraordinary** · 04-07-2012, 02:52 PM

Trocks is right, it can be the phone. If you compare my thunderbolt to droid 1 there is a huge difference. Thunderbolt on 3G will get speeds sometimes 10x faster than the droid 1...

**Andy84094** · 04-08-2012, 07:07 PM

Los Angeles near LAX

3G:
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WiMAX:

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**503ducati** · 04-08-2012, 09:43 PM

I've had Clear/Sprint 3G/4G all of '09-present, I've never seen speedtest.net pull up the same server for 3G and 4G.

**brad15** · 04-08-2012, 10:09 PM

Originally Posted by 503ducati

I've never seen speedtest.net pull up the same server for 3G and 4G.

i have several times, plus you can manually select servers quite easily.

**wifiguru** · 04-10-2012, 03:12 PM

Originally Posted by Trocks797

OP: are you sure it isn't your phone? I was in LA for a week in December (stayed in Burbank on Scott at a friends apartment right by the park) and never saw 1X or under ~900kbps the entire week I was there. I pulled 1.5mbps at In N Out in Burbank as well. I spent new years eve in Hollywood with also no issue. A member of this board just left LA after being there for awhile and he had this to tell me:

Before you jump through hoops to port over, make sure your phone isn't the culprit.

Thanks for the replies guys!

It's not my phone. I've had about 10 iPhones in front of me at once on VZW (corporate lines), along with a couple Rezounds. All are either super slow (20Kbps-200Kbps), or just drop 3G.

I like Verizon, but like I said, with Sprint rolling out their network vision, I am curious to see if their network performs better (at least data wise).

In the evenings my phone is unusable on 3G here in Burbank. Have to switch on WiFi (Which is OK, but... I pay for data, why not be able to use it?)

In Century City, the phone goes from 3G to 1X (especially during lunch hours). Can't even check email when I'm out for lunch. REALLY annoying. Data service is useless.

I was in Bakersfield over the weekend... at some points data was super slow (Speedtest App showed 10Kbps down/332Kbps up). This proved true on a friends Droid. (Trying to show you it's not THE iPhone or MY iPhone, but the network)

I would like to be able to use data in the city, which is why I am looking back at Sprint (don't want to go to AT&T)

Thanks!!

**Airb330** · 04-11-2012, 02:51 PM

I had issues with Verizon in the Anaheim area last year around this time. It would drop to 1X frequently on my iPhone. It was almost completely unusable at Disneyland. My husband's sprint phone was fine. So I doubt it is the OP's phone.

Noticed the 1X issue in San Diego as well on that trip. Especially in La Jolla. Signal was weak as 3G was on PCS and 1X was on cellular. That is a NIMBY issue I am sure. Didn't compare it with Sprint.