Talking Mobile // Tablet // Web Development

I’ve been rocking the Samsung Epic 4G for just over a month now.  It’s on loan to me from Samsung.  While the phone has its quirks and downfalls, one of the outstanding features is its 4G capability, on the Sprint network.

On occasion, I’ll turn on 4G to see if it connects.  It’s been hit or miss.  Sometimes I get a solid connection @ 5 Mbps down and sometimes it connects…disconnects…connects…disconnects.  Yesterday I was at the Minnesota Developers Conference in Bloomington, MN, and decide to give it a shot.  I had a solid connection and got a whopping 7 Mbps down.  It was a very stable connection too.  First thought: 4G is about to launch.  I was right.

This morning Sprint announced that they have launched 4G service in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. (BUSINESS WIRE), September 30, 2010 – Starting today, Sprint (NYSE:S) 4G – the next generation in wireless service and up to 10 times faster than 3G service1 – is available to customers in Minneapolis-St. Paul and Pittsburgh. With Sprint 4G, wireless customers can experience faster mobile downloads, video chat capabilities and turbo-charged Web browsing – all on the first wireless 4G network from a national carrier.

Glorious days, had by all!  Right? Maybe.

On the drive in, I decided to fire up the 4G radio and see what happens.  Nothing. I was a mile from downtown St. Paul.  It wouldn’t connect, not even for a second.  I’m currently sitting in Dunn Bros. North Loop, in Minneapolis.  Same thing.  Yesterday, I was driving on 35W from Bloomington to Roseville.  I had a pretty good 4G connection and was enjoying some streaming audio from last.fm.  I knew the 4G connection wouldn’t last forever.  But what I didn’t expect is that the bounce from 4G to 3G would be a total data connection loss.  Listening to a song, lose 4G, song stops, connect to 3G, new song starts, 4G connects, new song starts, lose connection to 4G, song stops, connect to 3G, new song starts, lather, rinse, repeat.  The handoff between 4G and 3G is not smooth…in fact it’s non-existant.

While I’m a strong supporter of 4G and LTE, I know we have a long way to go.  I’ll be excited when the current network stabilizes and becomes useable on a day-to-day basis.  Also, I’m patiently waiting for Sprint to update their coverage map for the Twin Cities.

Cheers,
Breon