Last night I picked up my HTC EVO 3D and noticed that my phone was in the middle of some kind of "service update." In fact, it looked like the same system dialogue that appears when I try to update my profile manually by hitting Settings > System updates > Update profile. I thought nothing of it, believing that I must have accidentally hit some wrong buttons, and I let it finish doing its thing.
However, it seems as if I'm not the only one who experienced this. EVO 3D users across the country are reporting that their devices have started this process involuntarily, without any prompting from the device's owner.
A quick call to Sprint customer service left me with no additional information – they didn't even know about the service update and initially thought I was talking about the latest OTA software update. This particular service update, however, does nothing to the software on the phone and simply changes something about how the EVO communicates with Sprint's towers.
And it's really not all bad. Users who get this update are reporting faster 3G speeds, including some pings under 100ms and download speeds over 2Mbps. Personally, my download speed went from around 600kbps to an average of around 1.5Mbps, and my ping hovered at about 150ms, down from around 300ms.
Not too shabby! So have you also experienced this mysterious unannounced service update on your EVO 3D? What about other EVO owners? How are your data speeds looking afterwards?
I experienced the update as well. I was curious what that was about. But I don’t know yet if it has done anything of significance. Thanks for you post
My EVO 4G did a profile update on its own the other day as well. I too thought I had done something.
Not my old school evo!! and my speeds still suck!!
2 of my 3D’s did it as well last night. Most of the state is with out power so I will have to check once we are back online. I will also check my EVO and see if it got this update.
Mine did it last night also and now that you mention it my speeds are faster. I live in a bad 3G service are so i notice any improvement.
Same here, I noticed the update when I woke up. I was trying to abandon the update in fear it would effect root but it hasn’t and until now I had no clue what the update effected so thanks for the info, time for some speed tests
!
Happened to me too last night – in a dead-cell area at the moment but will test when I leave
i dont think mine 4G has gotten any kind of update but Im going to run some speed tests see if my speeds have indeed increased.
I received the update. Speed tests reveal that my 3G downstream is better this morning in multiple tests. Still testing…
My guess is this was an internal network update to improve 3G speed for the influx of iphone users.
I’m wondering if Sprint bought some bandwidth from Verizon or someone and the update just moved some of us onto it.
Yup. Got it on both my 3D’s. Boosted my speed test scores by a couple of hundred.
Yup… And i noticed it this morning when my alarm went off. Didn’t read what the message was cause i was half awake. Havent noticed much difference in speed yet but i didnt have much problem with it here in socal
If I’m not sure if I received the update should I just do it manually?
I noticed the “you’ve been updated” message last night, but I don’t see much in the way of speed bump. I’m still testing in the 200-450 kbps range. I’ve tested much better & much worse since the 3D was released. So, I would have never know if not for the little message.
I got a ping of 85ms, 880kbps down and 522kbps up pretty good i think!! but i never really tested it before this update!
Update: i got 1.7 mbps download and 800 kbps upload!!
Hmmm… what about rooted folks…? How can we get that update?
The article is somewhat vague as I’m uncertain what kind of update this was and whether it applies exclusively to Sprint’s stock EVO ROM’s.
Was this a remotely activated ‘firmware update’ (settings > system updates > firmware update) or was it a ‘profile update’ (settings > system updates > update profile) ?
If it was a firmware update, then I expect it should only apply to EVO’s with Sprint’s stock ROM’s. If it was a ‘profile update’ then anyone should be able to complete it.
So which was it?
Same here, was messing with my EVO 3D phone when it suddenly started its own update.
Mine did update too. So far at work my data is still the same. In the morning I hit around 1mb then in the afternoon it drops down to around .6. So no change for me. Hopefully around town it changes things. Only way for me to get any data in best buy or walmart is to use roam control and force phone to roam.
Still the same for me in Honolulu
Ave 3G about 1.4 – 2.1 MB dl
and 500-700 KB ul
Ping about 170 ms
To San Francisco 2500 miles away
4G 5-9 MB dl 1.3-1.5 MB ul
Same ping times as 3G
Og Evo
This appears to have happened across rooted / non rooted promiscuously.
Reports of Myn Warm twopointthree nightly 10/27, WTSB 1.9,Infected Eternity, Senseless 1.7, etc. receiving it as well.
Personally about 80ms ping; almost 2mbps down; almost 1mbps up…
whereas previously about 300ms; 600kbps down; 200kbps up
In Baltimore and Ellicott City.
Got this early this morning when I got up it said it had been updated and only had a big “ok” button. I’m rooted running OMJ’s ROM and i freaked LOL! I thought I might reverse my root. I kept pushing the back key and the message kept coming up so I pulled the battery, checked to see if I had S-Off still and reboot from recovery LOL. I couldn’t find any thing on the web about it at 6 am and the message didn’t come back all day so I forgot about it until now. Glad to see I wasn’t alone LOL. not sure if it went thru since it did it on its own. I did that frantic reset but it said it was done already. I was just so scared I messed something up in a half-sleep daze LOL.
i dont see an improvement…worse for me actually in nebraska on my 3d.
i WAS getting at work previously between .28 and .55 mbps down, .14 and .38mbs up and ping in 240-500 ms, as i tested the in the past week
now it is not over .08 down, .2 up and the lowest ping of 623. Getting more and more upset with this damn network crap…slow as hell last few weeks (prior to iphone on the network) i have noticed it way slower.
hmmm…Hallowen? Phantom updates?
Well played, HTC.
Mine had failed a few times. I downloaded the speed app.
First run 641 down 234 up 113ms
updated profile
Second run 1964 down 93 up 111ms
So what are your PRL and Profile #s with this change?
Oh it’s an Original EVO 4g
I keep getting error code 1012 anytime I try to do a manual update og any kind , profile , prl , ect….
Reboot and try again the “Update profile”
True. I’m rooted and using CM7 and at night I noticed I didn’t have 3G and today i noticed that my speeds as well as my ping have improved a lot. So I believe that sprint fixed their 3G. Finally!
I had something like this but it stated more of an error saying profile not updated. That was a few days ago, but I did notice that I was getting 3 full 4G bars at home instead of one. I checked the opensignal app and apparently there are two new antennas that I connect to a few blocks closer to my home.
Maybe these new antennas are helping to unclog the airways?
I didn’t receive any update on my 3D, though.
Wow best was 2.5 mb down worst was 1.2 mb down did about 10 speed tests but I am also in an area that’s not too populated. Still wish sprint would of went with rev b.
I got the same update pushed to me and I live in Puerto Rico where Verizon doesn’t even exist… I’d test my speeds but I haven’t left home all day and I’ve got an Airave here so I’d just ve testing broadband speeds. Plus the Speedtest app has been broken for me for over a month, it gets stuck at finding closest server, I should probably reinstall it but I didn’t wanna lose my old test data.
actually this update took place and I was wondering what this was about it just atarted out of the blue when I was updating applications in the market. I did notice that 3g was better than normal but now that I have read this I will be paying more attention to this starting today…..If it’s true then yes this is a big help
The same thing happened to me…. but now my 3G AND 4G are SLOWER than normal.
first check is very interesting i got 84ping 1333kbps download and 1077 upload. normally I get anywhere from 450 to 666 download this is pretty good now.
Me aNd my wifes phone but did this update. I can already tell my browsing is faster. Not sure about overall download rates though
my 4G and her 3d did this update
well I did several tests throughout the day and my speed still sucks. This update didn’t help or hurt me as far as I can tell.
MY NFL SUNDAY TICKET STILL DOESN’T WORK OVER 3G SO IT DIDN’T DO THAT MUCH OF ANYTHING IF U ASK ME!!! STILL GOING TO VERIZON NEXT MONTH.
My 3G speeds are faster on MetroPCS Lmao.
Mine is stock rooted and it received it.
What speed app?
my speed still sucks ass.
miami,fl
not the piece’s author – just had it happen to me
rooted, running Android Revolutions 1.1.0, was there and it just appeared on the screen that I had been updated. No prompts, no warnings, just bam
Was anyone able to keep the files it downloaded? And has anyone actually been successful in forcing the update by using “Update profile”?
That might explain why my phone showed me roaming last nite after the update. I’m just a few blocks from a Sprint tower. Updated my profile and no change. All was back to normal this morning.
I manually tried the update (Profile and PRL) and both did execute some update…but now my speeds seem slower (and sometimes gets stuck on 1x). I’ll test a bit more throughout the day (NYC here)
Well still sucks ass for me. If I could avoid a termination fee both of my lines would be on ATT today.
I hope you were joking before making a comment like this one.
Both Sprint and Verizon are known as Tier 1 providers technically speaking.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tier_1_network
No, not joking. Tier 1 means you can get anywhere, not that speeds are guaranteed or that Sprint doesn’t pay when you use another services’ towers.
PRL defines where you prefer to roam, I think Sprint bought more OTA bandwidth on another network and now we “prefer” to roam there even when our Sprint towers are overloaded but reachable.
Just a bandwidth sharing purchase is what I’m saying.
Either that or this mysterious update coincided with a lot of new Sprint towers popping up.
Also, your link is about internet tiers, and bandwidth there. This is about cell towers and air time. Pretty sure Sprint has enough internets getting to the tower, just not enough spectrum and towers to service the phones.
air bandwidth
I didn’t receive this update to my 3d(I tried to do it manually)and speed tests are just pathetic. I’m switching carriers come February when my 1st line is up.
I believe they are sending out the 1x advanced updates and rolling out test for their new vision 3g network I’m in Houston and i know carriers update this city in the first batch a lot of times with the other 3 big Texas cities….
I think they might have started test or started rolling out the first updates of rev b. since the evo 3d is the only phone with a radio that can take advantage of the upgrade it makes since it was the only phone to see the upgrade…
Am I the only one who is having issues with manually updating? I havent received the update and when I try and manually update it, it says update services cannot be located at this time error – that goes for PRL, Profile and firmware tries … what gives??
So that is what that was… I saw that in the middle of the night a few nights back and was scared that it might have been an issue with my newly applied patch to my EVO 3D with a stock rooted rom and I have noticed faster speeds so it can’t be a placebo effect, either. I had no idea that improved speeds were involved until just now.
I just now got this update.
me too , but after reading this article i had updated my prl and and profile but just minutes ago i picked up my phone and there it was a message about a service update , i hit ok and now what