How to tell what connection speed I am operating in?

HTC Touch-Pro · #1 (**permalink**) 11-13-2009, 11:26 AM

Hi,

I have the TP that was originally offered by Alltel (although I have been migrated over to Verizon with the switch/merger) and I always see a few different interchanging icons in the upper info-bar.

How can I decipher when I am in 3G, and what do the other signs "1X" etc mean? I looked through my manual and couldn't find anything really specific as far as what the signs mean correlated to download speeds?

THANKS!

**Darkness231** · #2 (**permalink**) 11-13-2009, 11:48 AM

1X is about the speed of a dial up model, and 3G is about the speed of a DSL line (768kb)

You can check your speed by pointing your mobile browser to www.mobilespeedtest.com

gimme5 · #3 (**permalink**) 11-13-2009, 11:48 AM

Well, if it says EV or 3G (depending on your icon set), you're on EVDO, if it says 1x, you're on 1xRTT.

EVDO is 3G, 1x is slower.

On 1x you can expect 90-144 kbps, on EVDO, it can be between 400kbps and a couple Mbps on average.

HTC Touch-Pro · #4 (**permalink**) 11-13-2009, 11:53 AM

Awesome - THANKS! So, looks like with my icon set, I'll have to keep my eye out for: "Ev"

gimme5 · #5 (**permalink**) 11-13-2009, 11:59 AM

Yep.
Just a thought: I don't know if it works that way for the Alltell guys, but for us with Sprint, we can roam in EVDO on Alltell's network. If you guys can roam in EVDO on Sprint's network, it might be worth it to try to put your phone in roaming mode to get a Sprint Tower.

HTC Touch-Pro · #6 (**permalink**) 11-13-2009, 12:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gimme5

Yep.
Just a thought: I don't know if it works that way for the Alltell guys, but for us with Sprint, we can roam in EVDO on Alltell's network. If you guys can roam in EVDO on Sprint's network, it might be worth it to try to put your phone in roaming mode to get a Sprint Tower.

Oooooo, I think Verizon (used to be Alltel) would throw the BOOK at me if I opened my phone up to roaming. I'm just guessing since I'm not well versed in the contract/data stipulations, but I just got migrated over to Verizon, and although I have a National plan with unlimited data (since they force you to have that plan with Pocket PC's) I still think I would end up getting punched in the face with my next bill for some reason.

Maybe I'm totally wrong (which would be cool if I was, because higher speed would be great), but the word "roaming" even if it is right here in my hometown, makes me envision dollar signs and an image of me kicking the cat across the house, haha!

DMWagner · #7 (**permalink**) 11-13-2009, 02:31 PM

My Alltel phone has rA icon and I asked when I was activating it and the gal said it was EVDO RevisionA which was 3G. Is that true?

HTC Touch-Pro · #8 (**permalink**) 11-13-2009, 02:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DMWagner

My Alltel phone has rA icon and I asked when I was activating it and the gal said it was EVDO RevisionA which was 3G. Is that true?

Thats ironic - just went back to my desk to check my phone, and it has the "Ra," or "rA" symbol on it too... haven't been able to find anything out about it. I am in the 'center' of town though, so maybe the cell tower signal is strong here and I truly am getting 3G - BUT, I tried to download a radio podcast to my phone, and it seemed to be crawling along

PS: That's cool how you can take a screen shot - I didn't know you could do that.

DMWagner · #9 (**permalink**) 11-13-2009, 02:38 PM

It's the Screen Capture program that is in the stock Alltel ROM.

Here is my speed results with rA

gimme5 · #10 (**permalink**) 11-13-2009, 02:44 PM

Rev A is indeed 3G. For EVDO, you get either Rev 0 or Rev A. Rev A is ever so slightly faster on the download, but offers a nice upload speed improvement.

No matter what your download speed, it'll still feel slower than on your PC.

To know what you're getting, you should run a few tests on various speed test sites.