Users Say Sprint Epic4G 3G Upload Speeds Limited To 150kbps

Miamicanes writes "Nearly everyone who owns a Sprint Samsung Epic 4G and has benchmarked its 3G performance has discovered that its 3G upload speeds are apparently limited to 150kbps. So far, Sprint has not officially acknowledged it as a problem, nor has it indicated whether this might be a firmware bug, a PRL issue, tower-related, or the result of a deliberate policy to cap 3G upload speeds. Regardless, the problem is causing widespread anger among Epic4G owners, many of whom have bitterly noted the irony of being charged a $10 surcharge so they can endure data transfers that are slower than they had 4 years ago (and a quarter of the speeds enjoyed by Evo owners on the same 3G network)." Cellphone networks are fickle beasts; can anyone out there with an Epic provide a counterexample?

It's a hardware limitation

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe for a $50 fee, they will unlock the hardware and provide the full potential.

Re:A classic example of "what the market will bear

[PJ6]

It more than just what the market allows; compare what we have in the US to say, Europe, and you will come to the conclusion that we're simply seeing the effects of regulatory capture.

Insightful...

[Kupfernigk]

The difficulty is that the banks won't lend to improve infrastructure, as nobody is sure where the demand will go. In fact, I have some sympathy for the carrier. When O2, which is in my view a pretty [comment redacted owing to libel laws in UK] telecoms supplier, introduced the iPhone, our company was using O2. I noticed that every time a visitor with an iPhone entered our offices, calls started to drop out. I guessed that there wasn't enough bandwidth to the cell tower, and the iPhone was getting prioritised. I couldn't prove what was going on but I was suspicious. I jumped up and down and we switched to Vodafone; problem disappeared. I guess a supplier introducing a new, potentially high bandwidth device, would be careful so that, in the language of sales consultancy, they don't turn POCs into PPOCs (pissed off customers into permanently pissed off customers.)

Sprint Palm Pre has similar issue

[damianesteves]

The Sprint Palm Pre, which is a 3G phone, has its downloadspeed capped to 64KBps (kilobytes, not kilobits) per second. A foul practice indeed, but there's actually a homebrew patch that removes this limitation.

Re:Insightful...

[KingMotley]

Except that it's correct. When the iPhone was first released, the baseband code was misconfigured and it caused all iPhones to "scream" at the cell towers and the cell towers to "scream" back. This caused all other phones that weren't configured as such to start dropping calls. It was pretty well documented and there was quite a few stories on slashdot about it.

ROM Bug

[Cylix]

In the forum thread mentioned there appears to be a comment regarding the phone's firmware.

Apparently, some guys over at xda developers uploaded the european rom and were able to get full bandwidth from the phone. Given the reception issues and other communication problems I'm going to say this is a badly cooked rom on part of the Sprint side. (Even more Epic fail).

Now, at the moment this is completely unconfirmed and if you are an Epic fail owner I would suggest visiting their site to confirm.

Re:A classic example of "what the market will bear

[multipartmixed]

> Premium services such a "touch tone service" was (and still is I believe) an "option" that must be paid for.

Ironically,"touch tone" service is really only premium service in the eyes of the sales department. From an engineering POV it's actually cheaper way of signalling than make/break pulses.

Re:A classic example of "what the market will bear

[commodore64_love]

>>>Putting POTS under regulatory scrutiny really made them behave properly

Not really. POTS fell under regulatory control in the 20s, and then we had to deal with a stagnation of technology due to the government-created ATT monopoly for another 60 years. (Example: Modem technology stagnated at 1200 bits/second from the 1950s to the 80s.) Basically the same thing that happened in East Germany with their piece-of-junk Tribant car - technology froze in a WW2 state.

It was only when the government finally deregulated and allowed competition (i.e. put power in the hands of the consumer to choose their long-distance provider, and modem/phone) that things improved for the average person. Competition breeds innovation.

4G?!

[attah]

What 4G in the US&A? say what? Ah, it was only a marketing thingy.. like those chinese mp5 plyers... Afaik the only real 4G networks are in Sweden and Norway... (We are talkin some 50 Mbit downstream here) I wonder what real 4g will be called in the us.. Epic 4G, no wait... that's taken too.

Re:A classic example of "what the market will bear

[erroneus]

The monopoly wasn't given, it was bought and paid for in various ways both legal and shady. In the same way various radio, TV and wireless carriers bid on and buy radio spectra, cable, power and phone network companies pay for the right-of-way to build and operate their networks. They paid for their monopolies. Make no mistake about it. Now as far as the deals the carriers got for their money? Well, I agree that it is essentially used as a license to rape the consumer. But watch for when the deals are up for renewal and contact your government representatives. If you want to see change, make sure they know some people are watching.