Mobile speed test: how fast is your mobile network?

beecartbeecart Posts: 544
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The Guardian have done a test and results are in...

Download rates on Three averaged 2.73 Mbps, and Vodafone was in second place at 2.72 Mbps. O2 came in almost bang on average, at 2.64 Mbps. Orange and T-Mobile, which have been merged and now share a network, brought up the rear, reporting a combined average of 2.59 Mbps.

So all those O2 bashers out there... It seems O2 is slightly better than nothing nowhere

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/nov/19/mobile-phone-connection-speed-survey
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Comments

  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 17,123
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    Funny how you call people' O2 bashers' then go and bash EE.

    Hypocrite.
  • artnadaartnada Posts: 10,113
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    Taken 1 minute ago on Three. Tiny bit more than the small amount the Guardian posted. Three have recently been upgrading their network, and is very comparable to average 4G speeds.

    https://www.dropbox.com/s/1rkl4ng4v56j1u8/2012-11-19%2017.52.06.png

    picture recently on EE 4G
  • Daveoc64Daveoc64 Posts: 15,374
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    I would completely ignore these results.

    The problem with this sort of test is that it's grossly unscientific. You're not comparing the networks like for like.

    To do an accurate comparison, you need to test each network in the exact same location using the exact same hardware.

    It's not really a fair test to compare results from a phone that can hit speeds of ~20mbps with one that can only manage ~5mbps. It drags down the results.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,932
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    How fast? Fast enough for me, don't see the point in having faster.
  • danielmeahdanielmeah Posts: 461
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    You gotta remember people who do speed tests on o2 with the speedtest.net app, its always invalid. Due to that compression proxy (Which cannot be disabled on o2)

    One sign is you notice how quick the download test finishes.
  • mogzyboymogzyboy Posts: 6,366
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    Too many variables with this sort of thing for me to take it seriously.

    I'm guessing they were stood right under the mast to get that speed on O2? :D
  • hongkongandyhongkongandy Posts: 119
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    I am getting 11.84 down and 2.63 up. Three mobile and my area is not yet upgraded to Ultrafast....

    Why pay EE prices?:)
  • mogzyboymogzyboy Posts: 6,366
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    I am getting 11.84 down and 2.63 up. Three mobile and my area is not yet upgraded to Ultrafast....

    Why pay EE prices?:)
    Isn't EE's Full Monty around the same price? That's probably why... :)
  • hongkongandyhongkongandy Posts: 119
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    Three sim only £6.90 monthly.
  • Thine WonkThine Wonk Posts: 17,190
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    Time and time again 3 comes out top in these things though, whilst this one isn't that scientific the one carried out by Root Metrics certainly was, all using the same equipment in the same locations, tests were both indoors (at 102 locations), outdoors (conducted in the scouter’s parked vehicle during indoor testing), and during drive tests (covering 2,292 miles) throughout London.

    The result was that 3 provided the best overall performance including in building, the best SMS speed to delivery and the best overall data speeds. No wonder over a million people switched this year.
  • interactiv-ukinteractiv-uk Posts: 627
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    danielmeah wrote: »
    You gotta remember people who do speed tests on o2 with the speedtest.net app, its always invalid. Due to that compression proxy (Which cannot be disabled on o2)

    One sign is you notice how quick the download test finishes.

    Change your APN username to bypass. That should get you round the proxy issue.. It will screw up tethering etc so use at your own risk!
  • danielmeahdanielmeah Posts: 461
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    Change your APN username to bypass. That should get you round the proxy issue.. It will screw up tethering etc so use at your own risk!

    Dont think that works on giffgaff or other mvno's
  • MinardiMinardi Posts: 503
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    I always got good speeds where I had O2 3G. That just wans't that often. T-Mob via Virgin Mobile runs at about 3Meg here, though I topped 6Meg the other afternoon. Orange (again via Virgin) is a woeful 400-600k all the time. 3, via modem, is about 3Meg.
  • jabbamk1jabbamk1 Posts: 8,942
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    With three and o2. Usually get around 6-12mbps on a good day at home and work. Usually above 3mbps in most places in my area. Have seen really good dc-hspa+ speeds though on mates ipad. Around 15-20mbps.

    O2 is slower but on a good day I can get around 4mbps at home.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 38
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    To give an idea of the speeds to expect, the top laboratory-tested download rate on EE's network is around 50 megabits per second (Mbps) – equal to superfast home broadband. In real life conditions, the company is forecasting speeds of between 8 and 12Mbps.
  • eyponeypon Posts: 345
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    Get about 5-8Mbps outdoors

    about 1mb indoors with vodafone but tbh indoors i'm usually on wifi.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 4,398
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    http://www.speedtest.net/result/2321668136.png

    Using a standard 3 ZTE112 dongle plugged into a TP-Link 3G router sat on my window ledge..
  • lovedoctor1978lovedoctor1978 Posts: 2,327
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    What site do people use to do a speed test from thier phones?
  • wavejockglwwavejockglw Posts: 10,596
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    What site do people use to do a speed test from thier phones?

    www.speedtest.net is popular. There is a Speedtest app available for iPhone and Android.
  • lovedoctor1978lovedoctor1978 Posts: 2,327
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    Speedtest.net wont run on my phone, Samsung Monte (not android). Oh well.
  • Thine WonkThine Wonk Posts: 17,190
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    Speedtest.net wont run on my phone, Samsung Monte (not android). Oh well.

    Yeah it's a feature phone, rather than a smartphone really with it's own OS. I don't think you'll get much in the way of speed test aps etc.
  • GormondGormond Posts: 15,838
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    On Virgin Mobile, in my house I get:

    Down: 3.51 Mbps
    Up: 2.23 Mbps
    Ping: 73 ms

    Test done on an iPhone 4 with 3/5 bars so only 7.2 Mbps max.
  • DevonBlokeDevonBloke Posts: 6,835
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    EE. iPhone 5. MBNL 3G mast in my home town of Totnes.
    http://www.speedtest.net/iphone/373578018.png
    This isn't a one off. Gives same results all the time.
  • The Lord LucanThe Lord Lucan Posts: 5,054
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    beecart wrote: »

    The tester they use on this is crap. Where i'd see 15mb+ on any speediest.net server the guardian page only shows 2-4mb. it just doesn't test for long enough!

    I did a test this morning on EE LTE. Speedtest.net app registered 39mbps.. this silly test only could manage 5!!

    Also NONE of my tests have shown up on the map! it also thinks a 3G iPad is a desktop....
  • lovedoctor1978lovedoctor1978 Posts: 2,327
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    Thine Wonk wrote: »
    Yeah it's a feature phone, rather than a smartphone really with it's own OS. I don't think you'll get much in the way of speed test aps etc.
    I realise that, I just thought that there may be a speed tester site with a mobile variant (m.xxxxxxxx.com) out there. Its only me being nosy so no major issues lol.
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