Do you use a tethered smartphone for downloading?

**phion** · May 29th, 2012, 10:53 PM

I'm curious since I've done this for a while (a little over a year) to download from various trackers. Depending on the carrier you use, transmission rates can vary wildly, but that aside it's a very reliable way to download; however, beware, data consumption records can be shared across carriers. Personally, I used an Android phone (HTC Evo Shift) that wasn't rooted with the PDA Net application because it gives native options for layered security features that curiously affect the ability to download from certain sites (with no really discernible pattern, some very private trackers would allow via utorrent while less private trackers might not and vice versa), and I'm not very familiar with root or jail-broken applications. After about a year my contract was terminated due to some pretty obscure and newly underwritten reasons, but the gist was that I violated my data contract over unlimited. Shortly thereafter, right before signing up with Verizon, they implemented new 4G LTE protocol architecture, apparently disabling any mass data transfers (unless you're willing to pay and arm and a leg). I'm not sure about other carriers, but I never really noticed much difference between 3G and 4G download speeds, except that rates would increase or decrease dramatically depending on time. Another neat thing was that depending on the search engine or web site I used, I had up to 5+ different IPs...

Anyway, do you use your smartphone this way? If so, what phone and with what applications?

**phion** · May 31st, 2012, 09:02 PM

Nobody? Hrmph...

**sakyuu69** · June 5th, 2012, 12:21 AM

Well, I just jailbroke my iPhone. I'm using Verizon and still have the unlimited data plan. I plan on using my phone for data use via tethering, but I need to pay for the $20 app first. I also haven't reached decent speeds on 3g in my house. My hometown is quite large in terms of geography but small in terms of population. So if I use my phone for internet, my range is limited.

Were you actually getting decent speeds for your trackers when you tethered? I never thought about that use, and now I want to try it out.

**HKISM** · June 5th, 2012, 12:44 AM

That is odd, I though that after you jailbroken your iphone , you never need to buy an app again.

**dysrhythmic** · June 5th, 2012, 01:25 AM

I use my smartphone as a mobile hotspot when I'm on my tablet. Unfortunately, I have Sprint so I am limited to browsing websites. The download speeds of Sprint's 3G are horrendous.

**phion** · June 5th, 2012, 03:12 AM

Originally Posted by sakyuu69

Well, I just jailbroke my iPhone. I'm using Verizon and still have the unlimited data plan. I plan on using my phone for data use via tethering, but I need to pay for the $20 app first. I also haven't reached decent speeds on 3g in my house. My hometown is quite large in terms of geography but small in terms of population. So if I use my phone for internet, my range is limited.

Were you actually getting decent speeds for your trackers when you tethered? I never thought about that use, and now I want to try it out.

The differences between 3G and 4G were minimal, but during peak hours of transmission (usually very early morning) my download rates generally capped out around 700 kb/s.

---------- Post added at 02:12 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:10 AM ----------

Originally Posted by dysrhythmic

The download speeds of Sprint's 3G are horrendous.

Yep, worst on the market.

**sakyuu69** · June 5th, 2012, 01:36 PM

Originally Posted by HKISM

That is odd, I though that after you jailbroken your iphone , you never need to buy an app again.

Yeah, I thought so too, but jailbreaking allows you to access more app markets too. The app that I was thinking about does not have any free alternatives besides a trial of about 3 days. There are other things you can download, but I think they only change your settings and do not offer a GUI.

Originally Posted by phion

Originally Posted by dysrhythmic

The download speeds of Sprint's 3G are horrendous.

Yep, worst on the market.

The download speeds of Sprint are the worst? I was actually thinking of switching from Verizon to Sprint once unlimited data plans disappear.

**phion** · June 5th, 2012, 05:10 PM

Originally Posted by sakyuu69

The download speeds of Sprint are the worst? I was actually thinking of switching from Verizon to Sprint once unlimited data plans disappear.

Not that it wouldn't be a smart move, but according to a recent PC World analysis, Sprint rated the worst on transmission speeds, while AT&T and Verizon rated among the top two in the listed carriers.

**sakyuu69** · June 6th, 2012, 01:16 AM

Originally Posted by phion

Not that it wouldn't be a smart move, but according to a recent PC World analysis, Sprint rated the worst on transmission speeds, while AT&T and Verizon rated among the top two in the listed carriers.

I saw a forum about people against Sprint's speeds. They used speedtest.net to show their speeds.

I guess speeds are based on geography because I just tested mine on Verizon and got a surprising .37mbps down and .05mbps up. I know I've gotten faster speeds in other parts of my town, and portions of my house are strangely not covered by 3g either.

I also believe I found your PC World article which mentions 3G and 4G speeds. I'm shocked that around the country T-Mobile and AT&T are rated as top 3G and 4G carriers with 3.84down/1.44up and 2.62down/.85up. The article mentions that one large city near my region, Denver, lacks AT&T 4G coverage, and I know that my region lacks T-Mobile coverage completely. I'd love to know what my expected Verizon or Sprint speeds should be. The article also listed Sprint as having fallen from ~1.5mbps down to now ~.6mbps down in one year.

Just for fun I will post a link to the article I found as well: 3G and 4G Wireless Speed Showdown: Which Networks Are Fastest? | PCWorld

**phion** · June 6th, 2012, 04:33 PM

Originally Posted by sakyuu69

I saw a forum about people against Sprint's speeds. They used speedtest.net to show their speeds.

I guess speeds are based on geography because I just tested mine on Verizon and got a surprising .37mbps down and .05mbps up. I know I've gotten faster speeds in other parts of my town, and portions of my house are strangely not covered by 3g either.

I also believe I found your PC World article which mentions 3G and 4G speeds. I'm shocked that around the country T-Mobile and AT&T are rated as top 3G and 4G carriers with 3.84down/1.44up and 2.62down/.85up. The article mentions that one large city near my region, Denver, lacks AT&T 4G coverage, and I know that my region lacks T-Mobile coverage completely. I'd love to know what my expected Verizon or Sprint speeds should be. The article also listed Sprint as having fallen from ~1.5mbps down to now ~.6mbps down in one year.

Just for fun I will post a link to the article I found as well: 3G and 4G Wireless Speed Showdown: Which Networks Are Fastest? | PCWorld

Yep, that's the one.

I suspect the issue is with the towers themselves, though I'm not sure how much modulation modes effect transmission rates... I would be willing to bet that it's a matter of executive decision, where it was made to throttle speeds globally depending on the band modes (CDMA/TDMA/GSM/et al) and carrier to keep rates within a certain threshold, and since carriers share towers I don't see any other explanation. I could be mistaken, but the frequency/phase modulation would be directly proportional to the noise-limiting bandwidth spectrum that is allowed to broadcast, which gives credence to the fact that rates increase or derease depending on whatever mode a phone is functioning and the effective administrative distance from the source. It makes you wonder how reliable vertical and persistent hand-offs (satellites and other phones, themselves, as towers/signal boosters respectively) might be in the future.

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