Cell Phones Net Speed

[MindoverMaster]

I think I know what is in store here, but just need to clarify it.

I am on BoostMobile at the moment. Have a Sanyo Juno.

Now, with my pay as you go plan, I pay (recently jacked the price) 20C per minute and text. I also added on web for 50C/unlimited a day.

So, is there a reason why my web is so slow? I mean a FB page takes up to 30 seconds to load. I normally have a good connection when I do so. I think it is just the phone that makes it so, is this correct?

It could be the processor or memory, as well. I actually locked it up a few times. Wouldn't respond to anything, had to take the battery out.

 

[KSoD]

It could be the phone. It could also be the network as well. Boost pays the other carriers to use their towers to transfer data. Plus your only using 3G as well. So the combination can easily account for your speed.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Well, doesn't Boost run off the Sprint network? And I know my sister-in-law is on Sprint and she has a Samsung 4S. So, I guess the phone is to blame...

 

[Puddle Jumper]

I would say it is the phone. Even on the latest dual core smartphones web browsing can be cpu limited and they are much more powerful than your phone.

 

[KSoD]

Even if it does run off Sprint, whose customers do you think are going to take priority on those towers? The Sprint customers paying the company who owns the towers the money for unlimited data or the company who pays them rent to use their towers to jack their data transfer from their paying customers?

Why do you think pay as you go networks are always slower than the actual providers phones? You are using rented towers. Do you think buying a car that was a rental will be a better than than buying a new one off the lot knowing that the rental was used and abused by how many different people? Same concept.

So trying to compare the fact that your sister uses Sprint and your provider rents from them means absolutely nothing. Of course your sister is going to get better speeds, she pays the owners directly and not some 2rd party who rents from the true owner.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Renting towers or not, aren't you using the same exact tower?

I haven't heard any complaints from Slaymate, who is using VirginMobile, which also runs off the Sprint towers.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

Virgin and boost are treated differently by Sprint. At one time Boost only used the old Nextel network while Virgin was on Sprint's 3g network but I don't know if that is still the case. If that is true it would completely explain the issue as that network has very poor data speeds.

Slaymate also has a Android phone with a much better browser and likely more powerful hardware as well.

Does your phone have wifi that you can use so we can try to rule out the network?

 

[MindoverMaster]

No, it does not. I was thinking of getting an Android phone as well. Was looking at the Samsung Galaxy Prevail. Maybe even the ZTE Warp, if I can afford it.

But like Slay, I'll probably use more data than minutes.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

A service like Vrigin where you pay a monthly charge for data may be a better route if you decide to go with a smartphone. The reason I say that is by default an Android phone will always use small amounts of data to sync email, apps, IMs, etc which would cause you to pay for data every single day. There are apps to block data and prevent this however it does cause the phone to lose some functionality since data can't be pushed to it in real time.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Yeah, I might look at going Slay's route. I dunno where he gets it at $25/month. I see it saying $35/month as he was describing minutes/data.

I did hate Virgin, but that was with their pay-lo rates. $35/month looks better than Boost's $55/month for Android phones. Even with shrinkage, it looks better.

There a huge difference between 2.2 - Froyo and 2.3 - Gingerbread?