DS Forums

 
 

Who has the faster data speeds ?


Reply
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 05-12-2010, 09:19
old bill2
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Posts: 621

I know a lot of this depends on how far you are from the site and how congested it is. But who generally gives the fastest data speeds. For myself
Orange 1.4 meg
T-Mobile 1.9 meg
Vodafone (using Sure Signal) 4.1 meg

Having heard how great T-Mobiles 3G coverage is supposed to be ,I was a little bit disappointed with their speeds. Bearing in mind they use the same equipment as 3. And from what I have heard 3s data network is fast.
old bill2 is offline   Reply With Quote
Please sign in or register to remove this advertisement.
Old 05-12-2010, 09:49
prking
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Weston-super-Mare
Posts: 9,167
Gosh, you've opened up a huge can of worms. The situation with speed is so complex (because of the number of variables) that all anyone can really say is what their own experience is.
Even when tests are done to find the 'best' network the results are often contradictory and not as simple as some on here would have you think.
I think it would be better to rephrase your question. 'In the place where you use data the most, which is the fastest network?'
prking is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2010, 10:31
Thine Wonk
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 14,577
I know a lot of this depends on how far you are from the site and how congested it is. But who generally gives the fastest data speeds. For myself
Orange 1.4 meg
T-Mobile 1.9 meg
Vodafone (using Sure Signal) 4.1 meg

Having heard how great T-Mobiles 3G coverage is supposed to be ,I was a little bit disappointed with their speeds. Bearing in mind they use the same equipment as 3. And from what I have heard 3s data network is fast.
They may use the same cell sites, but not the same backbone. Also 1.9 meg for mobile is pretty decent, there's not a lot you can't do with that.
Vodafone (using Sure Signal ) is your bloody home broadband - so it's stupid to include that. What speed do you get on Vodafone if you turn off Sure Signal? probably GPRS because thats why you got it in the first place?

Can of worms indeed, you can't compare like that, it's pointless, post some real figures up sure signal indeed

As the vodafone website says "Watch the stories of people from around the UK who have been rescued from their mobile signal problems." - presumably they switched to 3 or a network that has better coverage"

'our signal is shit across large parts of the UK, but it's ok have one of these boxes, that'll be £50 thanks'
Thine Wonk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2010, 17:21
Anika Hanson
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: UK
Posts: 14,219
It's probably coverage dependant but in my house 02 is the fatest and most reliable, followed by 3 and then T-mobile.
Anika Hanson is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2010, 17:39
Lummo
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 6,737
Can you do a speedtest on HTC HD2? We have one of them on Vodafone which has constant 3G+ signal at home because we live opposite a mast lol. Would be interesting to see the results of that.

Can't seem to download apps on it from Windows Marketplace, it's a business phone if that affects it.

We also live opposite a 3/T-Mobile mast, only have 3 mobile broadband to test that though.
Lummo is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2010, 18:21
Russ_WWFC
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 1,710
From the 3 I've had

Three - by far the fastest, superb
T-Mobile - Variable, generally OK though
O2 - dreadful, very slow, still useable but disappointing
Russ_WWFC is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2010, 20:07
Thine Wonk
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 14,577
Can you do a speedtest on HTC HD2? We have one of them on Vodafone which has constant 3G+ signal at home because we live opposite a mast lol. Would be interesting to see the results of that.

Can't seem to download apps on it from Windows Marketplace, it's a business phone if that affects it.
If you can tether it via USB or wifi then you could do the test on a pc by going to speedtest.net using the 3G connection
Thine Wonk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2010, 20:24
Lummo
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 6,737
If you can tether it via USB or wifi then you could do the test on a pc by going to speedtest.net using the 3G connection
Ahh ok then, i might try that and see the results
Lummo is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2010, 20:49
alanwarwic
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2003
Location: the wild world web
Posts: 28,132
3 fastest but down 1 day per month.
t-mobile very variable, usually slow.

I quite suspect that when 3 is congested t-mobile takes the hit!
alanwarwic is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2010, 23:33
mrdeejay
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Scotland
Posts: 568
When I get a H on my phone these are the speeds all are on sim only and are the fastest I have got and average.


T-Mobile - 1.5 meg average down and 500 kbps up

Vodafone - fastest 3mb down and 1.5 m up

O2 - fastest 2mb, download, 1.6 fastest up although average is GPRS and EDGE so very hit and miss

Tried a pay as you go on Orange and got ropey 3G coverage so did not get a sim only from them and as 3 are doing away with 2G did not want to go with them.

Have decided to go to Vodafone as I feel there 3G coverage seems better.
mrdeejay is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2010, 23:49
Dragons_Heartbeat
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Cymru
Posts: 2,259
Usually get a pretty good connection speed of about 2.5mbs from 3 Mobile Broadband and ok service off o2 when my IPhone's 3G connectivity decides to work had no issues until the iOS 4.2.1 update tempted to go back to 4.1 for a while
Dragons_Heartbeat is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 05-12-2010, 23:56
Thine Wonk
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 14,577

O2 - fastest 2mb, download, 1.6 fastest up although average is GPRS and EDGE so very hit and miss.
So average figures must be really low then in the range of 120k average.
Thine Wonk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-12-2010, 12:39
mrdeejay
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Scotland
Posts: 568
So average figures must be really low then in the range of 120k average.
Yep it is that bad, pages try load but cant. It is a real pain unless your in a city centre.
mrdeejay is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-12-2010, 19:38
campioni06
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: London UK
Posts: 304
I'm on O2 in South London and always have H showing. Sometimes it flies through, other times it won't load a page whatsoever! Very hit and miss, I thought H was meant to be the fastest option?
campioni06 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-12-2010, 20:56
Thine Wonk
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 14,577
I'm on O2 in South London and always have H showing. Sometimes it flies through, other times it won't load a page whatsoever! Very hit and miss, I thought H was meant to be the fastest option?
It is except not on O2
Thine Wonk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 07-12-2010, 20:59
campioni06
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: London UK
Posts: 304
It is except not on O2
Lol tell me about it.

Vodafone sim gets amazing fast internet all the time but strangely the phone signal is hit and miss. Can't win
campioni06 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-12-2010, 13:11
The Lord Lucan
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Scotland
Posts: 4,967
Can only go by what i've actually experienced.

Orange off peak i get this:
http://yfrog.com/17iphone3pics550p
During the day i get this:
http://yfrog.com/juiphone3pics567j

One was taken on Iphone4 the other a 3Gs.

Vodafone i get 1.75 most of the time although peak it does down to 1.25 down

T-Mobile i got about the same as Vodafone only it suffered less at peak.

Not used O2 or 3 for long enough or speed testested them recently
The Lord Lucan is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 08-12-2010, 13:17
The Lord Lucan
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Scotland
Posts: 4,967
Lol tell me about it.

Vodafone sim gets amazing fast internet all the time but strangely the phone signal is hit and miss. Can't win
There is one thing about 3G coverage it changes all the time. The more people using that 3G mast a reduction in coverage will be seen... so called 2G doesn't work like that and the coverage stays the same no matter how many are on it.
The Lord Lucan is online now   Reply With Quote
Old 08-12-2010, 20:32
Thine Wonk
Forum Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 14,577
OMG those ping times are horrendous, my pings are 143ms, yours are 3-4 seconds, that's shocking.

There is one thing about 3G coverage it changes all the time. The more people using that 3G mast a reduction in coverage will be seen... so called 2G doesn't work like that and the coverage stays the same no matter how many are on it.
Sort of, this cell breathing thing has been misunderstood I think as I did some reading recently that suggests it doesn't effect coverage at all.

What should happen is your phone communicates with the cell you are on and tells it what signal in decibels it is getting from any cells it can see in the area. The cell and the controllers then decide which cell to put you on based on that data, it will prefer the one with the best signal, it is important to note that your phone does NOT decide that, it only sends the data to the cell and it's controller decides whether to move you or keep you on the current cell.

You should always try and stay on cells that you get the strongest signal from.

*load kicks in causing capacity issue*
When the cell you are on gets above a certain amount of utilisation it uses the data yours and other phones tell it about signal levels to decide who to kick off (by kick off I mean deliberately move you to a cell that is less congested).

So you may not be on the nearest because it's congested, but it knows you will still have signal because it knows you have an acceptable signal level on another cell thanks to the data you fed to it about the other cells you could see and the signal levels of them.

If you didn't have an acceptable signal level from any other cells it wouldn't kick you it would kick somebody else who did.

So I think this cell breathing has been misinterpreted, it should never cause coverage to change depending on capacity only which cell you are connected to should change.

Of course if lots of cells are all severely congested you won't get a connection and you'll end up connecting to 2G, something which may happen on some *cough* networks who haven't invested much in 3G coverage / capacity.

If there are any network engineers here please feel free to correct me as I'm not a network engineer, but this was my understanding of it from doing a bit of online research.
Thine Wonk is offline   Reply With Quote
 
Reply




 
Forum Jump


All times are GMT. The time now is 11:13.