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Tethering speeds
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Hi,
In the months to come I am going abandon my landline and switch to 3's One Plan. Tethering and unlimited data being why this plan is attractive for me.
I'm not a heavy user, i.e. no games, but I probably will use iPlayer or similar for a few hours per week.
Anyway, my question is, does the tethering speed differ between phones? From the phone to the PC or iPad?
The present 3 offer is either the iPhone 4 or 4s. Is this slower at tethering than the 5? I know there are others on offer from 3 but I'm going for an Apple because my wife is going to get an iPad.
(I asked them at the 3 shop in town but wasn't convinced by their answer)
All the best,
Sid
In the months to come I am going abandon my landline and switch to 3's One Plan. Tethering and unlimited data being why this plan is attractive for me.
I'm not a heavy user, i.e. no games, but I probably will use iPlayer or similar for a few hours per week.
Anyway, my question is, does the tethering speed differ between phones? From the phone to the PC or iPad?
The present 3 offer is either the iPhone 4 or 4s. Is this slower at tethering than the 5? I know there are others on offer from 3 but I'm going for an Apple because my wife is going to get an iPad.
(I asked them at the 3 shop in town but wasn't convinced by their answer)
All the best,
Sid
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Comments
The 4 will be slow, the 4s will be faster and the 5 will be fastest.
The 4 has a capability of up to 14.4. The 4s up to 21 and the 5 up to 43. Obviously real world speeds are MUCH lower so if you want a decent experience go for the iphone 5. A realistic speed on the 4 will be 2-3 meg, 4-5 meg on the 4s and maybe 12-15 on the 5 maybe higher. Some people have seen over 20 on the iphone 5.
The max that the iPhone 4 supports is 7.2Mbps. In real life with full signal standing next to the mast you'll probably get 75% of that speed max. (5.5Mbps)
The iPhone 4s supports up to 14.4Mbps. Again you'll probably see 75% at max. (11Mbps)
The iPhone 5 supports up to 42Mbps. It supports 3's much faster network as well so again you'll see around 75% max when in a supported area with good signal- (31mbps)
Although what i've given you is really the maximum you'll see. If you live in a very congested area and get around 3mbps then you'll see that across all the devices pretty much. If your mast is capable of much more then you'll see that each phone has a different max speed and whist the iPhone 4 will only give you 5mbps max the iPhone 5 would give you 5 times that speed.
Always test signal before buying.
I got on average around 2Mbps.
I'm in the same boat. I looked long and hard at everything and nobody can touch Three's 'One Plan' at the moment.
I acquired an iPhone 5 on the One Plan and get 5-12 mbps (according to speedtest.net) down, and around 2.2 mbps up. For some reason upload speed is much more consistent than download.
The biggest problem isn't so much speed, but the consistency of that speed. From time-to-time download speed will drop to under 1 mbps. I guess 3G isn't as reliable as a landline, but as I have no choice I just have to grin and bare it.
Hopefully Three will get 4G up and running fairly soon. My understanding is One Plan unlimited data clients are automatically upgraded to 4G as soon as its available. But don't quote me!
Reconsider this bit.
3G is not a replacement for home broadband. It's not as reliable, not as fast as fibre, not as stable etc... Also the contracts are longer.
If you do want to just get the phone and tether then get the iPhone 5 as it's a DC-HSPA+ device and will give you faster speeds. it's also a 4G device as well.
But like i said you need to make sure that the area you're using it in is top notch for signal and has no congestion otherwise you'll be paying more for a less reliable/fast broadband service.
LTE is going to be free to all customers like how they don't charge extra for DC-HSDPA. You are correct 3G is not reliable enough to compete with most fixed line connections unless someone can only get 4MB or something in there area. 4G on the other hand is completely possible to compete with fixed line broad band. Three is likely going start rolling out 4G October/November.
To Topic Opener I would go with the IPhone 5 because it will allow you to use the highest speeds at moment but also when 4G comes to your area you will be able to use that as well for no extra which will also boost your speeds.
It's not just the download speed to consider its also the ping time. My 4mbps land line broadband is much faster browsing than the 20mbps DC-HSDPA connection I get
True though 4G is meant to resolve ping issue and it never been a real problem with me even on 3G. I was bored one weekend and tried playing The Old Republic via tethering and it took longer load up but it worked perfectly fine once it did it was only slightly higher ping they I usually got so it clearly is still a viable alternative specially when 4G comes in.
I realise that the One Plan is not a complete substitute for a phone and broadband package.
But, I currently pay about twenty pounds a month for my landline, just over twenty pounds for 40GB data on the broadband (which I don't usually use up to, but sometimes use more than 20GB).
And I have to pay for a mobile phone as well, which is currently PAYG and my phone needs replacing.
And I don't live in my house all the time.
So £26 per month for the whole thing, including an iPhone 4 seems pretty much what I want.
Deelybopper – I thought you could only tether on the One Plan.
enapace – Yes, I take your point about the 5 being capable of taking advantage of higher speeds later in the piece.
Jabbamk1 – at least some of the time I shall be on a canal boat so I have no option of a landline anyway. I know where the masts are located and so am considering an aerial, either omini or unidirectional, but this is for a later post as I need to find out if there is a connector in any iPhone. Thank you for the figures.
megaresp – your news about upgrading is good. Let’s hope it happens.
I’m not quite sure about what the pinging thing is.
Anyway, I’m not rushing into this, my landline contract still has some time to run. And I will get a One Plan before disposing of the landline.
I am fed up with my landline provider as well. I have wasted hours trying to sort a problem out, and it still isn’t resolved. I have to pay £9 for a bill!
I can see from the comments generally that I really have to look hard at the iPhone 5, even though it’s a lot more.
Thanks to all,
Sid
Just another insight from a Three one plan user, and proof that it CAN be a broadband replacement if your in a good signal area
I pay £14pm for unlimited fibre optic including line rental..
But yeh i'd recommend getting an iPhone 5 if you plan on using it as a replacement for home broadband as it'll take advantage of next gen tech that is currently being rolled out and 4G tech which is being rolled out at the end of the year. It means you won't be stuck with a slow internet connection with an iPhone 4 in 2 years time. Future proofing.
It is unlimited and can work as lidtop has shown.
But you need to work out if the areas you'll be in are good for three and whether the service is reliable in that area. You can have the best signal but it's no good if it goes down for maintenance every other day or gets heavily congested at peak times. Hence my asking to reconsider going for a stable fixed line broadband connection.
But if you're out of the house most of the time then i think that it would benefit you getting a phone on the one plan.
Yeah i consider myself very lucky to be in a good signal area, if i go say 6 miles away to my parents house i get like 2mbps instead of the 6-10 i get here, so worth getting a PAYG sim to check if the signal/data speeds are good AND consistent where you'll be using it. If it is then give it a go, ive saved god knows how much on not paying a monthly fee for broadband :cool:
And just to echo whats said above about different phones achieving different speeds, i used to tether my iphone 4 in exactly the same location and i was getting around 4-5mbps, so my 4S is almost doubling (in most cases) the speed i was getting from the 4
I still keep my fixed line at moment [Apart from occasional use when it goes down don't use at home] but I use via tethering a hell of alot when I am travelling by now you would think most hotels offered wifi but they don't so it really is a good thing to have.
Plus future proofing is never a bad thing.
Thats another great thing about it, if your out and about and carry a ipad or laptop you can connect to the internet where ever you are as long as you have a signal
I take onboard future proofing.
As for my landline costs. It's a long story but revolves partly around the need to retain my phone number. That need has gone now. You can get these good deals, but it seems only if you are a new customer.
It's quite a big break to do away with a landline altogether. Landlines are part of our culture. As the discussion has shown it hasn't been remotely possible to do away with the landline until very recently. And it's only a very few years since we weren't using dial up. It does move on so quickly, it's easy to get left behind.
Actually though, we call overseas a lot, And long calls, too. My deal gives me an hour to Australia and Japan landlines for 20p, which is good. Much cheaper and better quality than Skype Out. (I wish Skype In was an option, but it's not) So my deal is not all bad. And my £20 per month phone charge includes all my other calls (except mobiles which are 20p per hour)
Of course if there are two of you in a house a landline is good. With one mobile as your only means of communication, if your other half is out with the phone you are stuck, are you not?
Use at your own risk, but you'll find your phone battery will get heavy wear, you'll find speeds will be variable depending on demand, and personally I really don't think it's a replacement for home broadband.
You can get budget ADSL quite cheaply these days.
These things are fine if the other party has them. If they just have a landline and are not tech savvy then they are not viable means of communication. It's a problem, and frustrating.
That's officially true. But I had no issues tethering mine for the 3 days while my landline was down.
I have no idea how they check but I'm not a heavy user so if they did notice they don't seem to be bothered. I have not had a text, e-mail, phone call or letter or anything show up on my3 about those 3 days.
i used one for a week and it was very good on 3 (I live 100m from a mast)
i got 2-7meg avg 3meg
the latency was the only downside its at least double fixed broadband
can be a pain at busy times
you click on links and it "thinks" for a while
Oh I hear you on doing away with a landline I have one just so I get broad band I couldn't even tell you it's number I never use at all. Not even sure it's plugged in, hardly anyone is ever in house during day so it worthless to me really.
4G LTE doesn't "resolve" the "ping issue." It improves it over 3G but it still doesn't compare to a land line broadband connection. I get 34Mbps on 4G LTE on my iPad 4 but ping times are about 1/3 as fast, or worse, as my 12 Mbps fiber land line.
Well as I said before I managed play on a mmo on a Three's network via tethering so obviously it perfectly fine for anything. Plus I can remember when my broad band had a higher ping then my phone does so maybe that will improve as well.
The point is a land line usually has much better ping times, 4G LTE included. Consider your situation unique.