Slow data speeds on my Verizon iPhone 6+

[Hannah.Taylor]

Ok, some strange things going on with my Verizon iPhone 6+ lately.

I live in Denver, close to Capitol Hill and signal has always sucked in my apartment so I have always chalked up the slow download speeds to the poor signal.

But now I'm curious if something more is at play here.

I have Verizon
Unlimited Text, Talk and Data Plan (Grandfathered in)
Customer since Jan 2011

I bought a brand new Verizon iPhone 6+ on ebay last August to avoid losing my unlimited plan. New in the box, mint condition, never used or activated and completely unlocked.

Once I got a sim card for it, I activated it and then jailbroke my iphone.

About 6 weeks ago I made a run for work from Denver to Salt Lake City. On the way I ran a data speed test using the speedtest app during my break.

These were the results


Then last weekend I ran another test while in Ft. Collins. The results were drastically slower which I thought was odd.


Thinking that was a mistake I switched to a Denver server and re-ran the test again from Ft. Collins and that was a little faster



Fast forward to tonight, I'm discussing this with a friend and he has me run the tests again on all Denver servers. These are from inside my apartment where I currently have only 2 bars of service.


so I think this is pretty terrible speeds to be getting considering that I pay $154 a month for unlimited text, talk and data considering that Verizon claims they are not throttling data speeds.

http://www.fiercewireless.com/story...who-have-hung-unlimited-data-plans/2015-10-21


On a whim, he thought maybe I wasnt connecting to the nearest tower so I looked up how to change towers and I powered the phone down, I pulled the sim card for about 5 minutes then re-booted the phone and let it re-acquire everything. Ran the speed test again on a Denver server and still getting the same results. so pulling the sim card and re-booting had no effect.


A few notes.

I am jailbroken specifically so I can tether to my laptop or desktop. It's become maddeningly slow as of late.

I am on iOS 8.4
Running Cydia for jailbroken phones
MyWi 8.03.02

Even if I walk outside to the street, signal is still low. 1-3 bars. I constantly have 1-2 bars in my apartment. Pretty sure its all the brick and steel of the building interfering with the signal.


I have ordered Gordon's Maximum Signal 4G/LTE signal boost amplifier. Am I wrong to think his amps will help my problems any?

Is Verizon intentionally throttling my speeds? Or are there simply too many users on the network and it is overloading the tower's data speeds ability?

Or is there something else possibly wrong here that I am unaware of?

Any help or insight would be appreciated

 

[Hannah.Taylor]

I ran another test this morning on a Denver server at 0555. Serious contrast in results from last night. Same location in my apartment, 2 bars of service.

 

[Mark Blue]

I'm not sure what the slowdowns could be attributed to other than tower congestion during peak times, but that's only a guess. I'm reluctant to say an amp will or won't help, but conventional wisdom would say it would. Once you have yours in hand you'll be able to turn it off and on while running subsequent tests, albeit in your car or semi. That top test is on par with the speeds I most often see on LTE and it tends to make anything less a drag.

What happened where you had to buy an iPhone 6 in order not to lose your unlimited VZW data plan?

 

[Hannah.Taylor]

I'm not sure what the slowdowns could be attributed to other than tower congestion during peak times, but that's only a guess. I'm reluctant to say an amp will or won't help, but conventional wisdom would say it would. Once you have yours in hand you'll be able to turn it off and on while running subsequent tests, albeit in your car or semi. That top test is on par with the speeds I most often see on LTE and it tends to make anything less a drag.

What happened where you had to buy an iPhone 6 in order not to lose your unlimited VZW data plan?

With last night and this mornings sharp contrast in speeds, I'm almost certain it is just congestion.

If you upgrade your phone while on unlimited, it kicks you off the unlimited plan.

https://www.whistleout.com/CellPhon...ff-upgrade-loopholes-for-unlimited-data-plans

plus I hate being under contract, so I bought mine outright.

 

[Mark Blue]

Man, they really have you by the short hairs with their unlimited plans. I bought a new handset from eBay after my contract expired, the only difference being I don't have the unlimited plan, nor do I jailbreak it. I ended up with a Samsung S6 Edge with 128 GB, which aren't that easy to find. There's nothing as sweet as owning it IMO.

I was going to recommend an app called SignalCheck Pro to help you get at more detail, but I can't find it in the App Store. Here's a screenshot so you can see what it affords you for $1.99. I'll have to keep an eye out for an iOS app that's similar in functionality for you.

 

[rdale]

That's only for Androids.

 

[Mark Blue]

I was going to recommend an app called SignalCheck Pro to help you get at more detail, but I can't find it in the App Store. Here's a screenshot so you can see what it affords you for $1.99. I'll have to keep an eye out for an iOS app that's similar in functionality for you.

I thought I made that clear by the above. App Store and iOS.

 

[Mark Blue]

For the time being using Field Test Mode may be an option, I'm just not sure if it's different because of the jail break you're running. It's worth a shot if nothing else: http://bit.ly/1WEjbOH.

 

[Hannah.Taylor]

For the time being using Field Test Mode may be an option, I'm just not sure if it's different because of the jail break you're running. It's worth a shot if nothing else: http://bit.ly/1WEjbOH.

found a free app.

 

[Hannah.Taylor]

well I am not sure just how good this app really is. It always shows -113 db and 0% signal. The latency does change frequently.

 

[Mark Blue]

Unfortunately, I saw a few users reporting the same behavior in the app reviews. Hopefully you'll be able to scrounge something up that works better than FieldTester in the near future.

 

[Hannah.Taylor]

I cant seem to find anything that tells my signal strength. [emoji20]

 

[StormChaseJG]

I cant seem to find anything that tells my signal strength. [emoji20]

You can find your signal strength when using field test mode and there will be other details about your connection on other pages in their. To activate field test mode enter *3001#12345#* in the phone app. Your signal bars will be replaced by numbers.

 

[rdale]

JG - she pointed out above that since her phone was jailbroke she could not get the field test mode.

 

[Hannah.Taylor]

i got into field test mode fine. was just looking for an app in the app store that did it accurately but it doesnt. so no worries.

 

[Hannah.Taylor]

well...this explains so much about why my data speeds suck.

http://www.denverpost.com/2016/08/02/denver-is-dead-last-in-u-s-mobile-data-speeds/

 

[Mark Blue]

You can't argue with the results from a group of testers sent here for that purpose. My neck of the woods seems to be just fine based on this and other similar tests I've completed recently.

 

[Marc R. O'Leary]

This is just because all the transient pot smokers are sitting around all day watching ren and stimpy on their phones.

That, and Denver's general infrastructure is designed for population of about 1/3 of what is is currently.