However, the rest of this article will focus more on data speeds and improving those. If you have general slowness on your phone, that may be solved by performing these actions: Your phone being slow might have nothing to do with your data speeds. Mother Nature – Just like building materials, trees, hills, and valleys are known to block and reflect radio frequency waves, resulting in snail-like data speeds.If cellular signals can’t penetrate your home, you’re left with poor data speeds. Building Material – Materials like, but not limited to, metal, low-e glass, concrete, brick, plaster, and insulation, are notorious for blocking radio frequency waves.Cell Tower Distance – The further you are from your carrier’s cell tower the weaker your cellular service is, which results in slow 4G LTE data speeds.Most commonly seen by people who subscribe to MVNO or pre-paid carriers, such as Cricket Wireless, Metro by T-Mobile, Straight Talk, etc.Įxternal factors that cause slow data speeds: Data Deprioritization – Carriers temporally slow down your data speeds and give priority to other users.Mobile Data Throttling – Carriers slow down your data speeds after you’ve surpassed the data cap disclosed in the fine print of your data plan.There are many factors that cause slow data speeds - some are carrier related, while others are caused by external factors.Ĭarrier related factors that cause slow data speeds: In other words, when you’re using your GPS in your car or looking things up on your phone, it’s all done over LTE.Īll major carriers, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint, use LTE technology, but utilize different frequency bands. When no authorized WiFi is found, your phone powers its internet over an LTE network. How?ĭata reaches your phone through WiFi or LTE.

It allows you to stream high-quality videos, browse the web, play games, send text messages, and so much more without needing a WiFi connection. LTE, short for Long-Term Evolution, is a mobile standard for wireless communication, designed to achieve fast internet speeds - faster than 3G, but slower than 5G.

Lte 4g data speed