I just called Oranges tech support about the dreadful data speeds I get in my area. The tech guy was very helpful and spoke to network control. They confirmed there was no fault and the speeds were normal for Orange.

http://i1185.photobucket.com/albums/...2-07135846.jpg
So on the left we have HTC Desire on T-Mobile and on the right a HTC Desire HD on Orange. Both photos were taken with in seconds of each other.
Sorry Orange if these speeds are normal then you are going to grind to a halt very soon.

I have friends on Orange who are constantly complaining about data speeds and non-connectivity.
I'm on T-Mobile and all is fine (and hopefully won't be ruined by EE) - what package are you on with T-Mo as the data speeds on Web n Walk+ are normally limited to 2Mbps.

My O2 3G connection running Speedtest.net on an iPhone:

Ping: 395ms
D/L - 0.13Mbit
U/L - 0.10 Mbit

To be fair, the phone on the left is recieving HSDPA, while the other one is on 3G.....

HSDPA is quicker than 3G, perhaps HSDPA is not available on Orange in your area?

Both networks were using HSDPA. Orange reverts back to 3G when not connecting.
I am on T-Mobiles Web Max package (10GB) hence the higher download and upload speeds.
Quote

My O2 3G connection running Speedtest.net on an iPhone:

Ping: 395ms
D/L - 0.13Mbit
U/L - 0.10 Mbit


What time of day was this ? I can understand slow speeds at peak times. But these tests I ran were at 2.00 in the afternoon hardly peak time.
Have just ran some more tests .

T-Mobile now
DL 1,67
UL 1.54
ping 153

Orange
DL 0.03
UL 0.25
Ping 650

and just to be unbiased
3

DL 1783
UL 742
ping 288


I dont want to moan about Orange. I want them to pull themselves round, and be the respected network they once were.

I have been with Orange for a number of years now but will be jumping ship if this isn't improved by the time my contract is up in November.

Just done a speedtest using the speedtest app (SE x10, in a city centre with full signal on HSDPA)

download - 358 kbps
upload - 335 kbps
ping - 132ms

The thing is that I know Orange can provide decent data speeds as they do so for their mobile BB customers. I used to have a dongle which gave steady speeds between 2-3 meg when on 3G. The mobile BB customers use a different APN and seem to be immune from the slow speeds!

If there's anyone out there using Orange mobile BB I would like to see their speedtest as a comparison!

Orange uses CoS on their network to give dongle customers higher priority.

The performance some people are reporting is in my view unacceptable. Orange are going to be getting rid of most of their 3G network (some sites will become part of EE)

The worry of course is that the EE 3G network will be as bad as the current Orange one and not as good as the current T-Mobile one. (1918Kbps down just, 118ms)

That is my worry as well. My contract is up in I think October so hopefully the network merger will be done by then and hopefully speeds will improve. If not I will look elsewhere. It's really frustrating having a supposed smart phone and having to wait ages for things to load!

Does anyone know when the merger of 3G networks is due to be completed?

I heard a rather vague "during the summer"

As an Orange customer you should probably see things get better. The temptation for EE will be for them to use the existing T-Mo back haul as those will be making up the majority of the EE network sites. Hopefully they will have some foresight that data usage is only heading in one direction and upgrade the sites as necessary.

There are some sites on T-Mo's network that I have seen slow speeds on (as low as 70Kbps regularly on a couple of sites) and I cannot of course comment if this is caused by a lack of radio access frequencies or an overloaded backhaul. I assume that the radio access will make use of both T-Mo and Orange's 3G 2.1GHz allocations.

HSDPA across all networks is probably going to still set to get worse before it gets better

That was about 3 mins before I posted on here.

I did a speedtest at 01:00 this morning also;

Ping: 898ms
D/L: 3kbps (Yes, 3!!)
U/L: 40kbps

O2's exec office rang me a few days ago after I complained about an unrelated 3G call issue. They said some work was going on today (8th) and to check tomorrow that all is well. I'll check data speeds again then...

Orange/HSDPA via my N8.

Ping 314ms
Download - 1.96mb/s
Upload 0.30mb/s

Not the greatest, but still not too bad.

*edit* so Orange can perform, but all networks will vary wildly from location to location depending on loading.

I am actually shocked at the following result. Orange are usually very poor wherever I use them. Just got this result in a small sub-urban area:

Ping: 415ms

Downstream: 2.01Mbps
Upstream: 0.23Mbps

Upstream not great but the download is certainly better than I've ever seen before on Orange...

Reasonable speeds there. The latency is still a touch on the high side though.

With 1 bar of Orange 3G on an iPhone 4:

Downstream: 1.5mb
Upstream: 0.4mb

Ping 180

Since everyone else is getting good speeds. I have tried calling CS again. This time I spoke to a CSR who knew what he was doing. He said that there is a (sure PlymouthBloke1974 will know what this is) STK fault on the mast.

An STK is what we call an incident ticket. Could be anything from a CSR not being able to sign in, to a total crash of the network (like the 3 day data incident last August).

After about 1 hour on the phone we are still further forward. Having run no end of speed tests which varied between 1kbps-240kbps, Orange say they cannot find any fault with the mast. This is despite the CSR saying that at least one other person in my immediate area has called them to complain about the service. . So it was left that they would look at the mast again but at the moment its not faulty. So one 1kbps is normal.

At my house in Southampton on Orange 3G/HSDPA i get:

Download = 1.92 Mbps
Upload = 0.22 Mbps

This is a strong signal area for all networks, also i know a lot of people in Southampton who use Orange.

http://www.speedtest.net/iphone/90941900.png

That does indeed sound like there is a network fault in your area. I'm on O2 and currently mine is:
Ping 179ms
DL 2.42 Mbps
UL 1.66 Mbps

Finally spoke to a very helpful guy in the network team this afternoon. After a lot of digging they have discovered there is a data fault on the mast. Not sure how long it will take to repair, but at least they have found out that something is not working properly.

Some phones (and indeed depending on the customizations to the phone) display a 3G icon regardless of whether HSPA is in effect or not.

I'm not sure how the Desire HD does it, but you could be right.