Over the past 4 years I have been a subscriber of Sprint 3G/EVDO service here in Hawaii and have traveled extensively with the service. Up until last week I was using Novatel U720 card which in Hawaii and almost everyplace I went was able support 1550 kbps Down and 500 kbps up.. This was the speed I was able to achieve in almost any Sprint market.
Wanting to get in on the 4G / WiMax action I ordered the Sprint U300 card which is dual purpose 3G/4G or as they call it WiMax.
When I put the card in 3G mode and connect to the internet and do a speed test my speed has dropped of to unacceptable levels. Now remember with my old card I was getting 1500 down and 500 up. Here is what I am getting on the new card on the old 3G Network.
Can you believe that crap.. This is the speed I got out of the card here in Hawaii, Dallas and Austin.
So lets look at performance of Spring WiMax / 4G for the Hawaii which was turned on 6 days ago.
Not bad and I am happy with the new speed but the question remains why did the speed drop of with the 3G portion of the card. Well I have been doing some test and it is the card. The Sprint U300 is a piece of crap for 3G. Sadly the U300 has no antenna port either? I am at a toss-up on what to do.. I may cancel the 3G service for this card and sign up for a second account that is 3G only with the other card. This way I can still get high-speed 3G when I travel to non WiMax /4G areas.
I would love to talk to sprint on this and see if they can make me happy. My advice do not upgrade to the U300 card unless you are willing to never get any value out of the 3G connection.