Mobile broadband slower than advertised

Started by Rik, Sep 22, 2009, 10:55:23

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Rik

Sep 22, 2009, 10:55:23
Are we surprised?

The BBC reports that:

QuoteA survey by comparison site Broadband Expert suggests that UK mobile broadband providers are delivering services "far lower than advertised".

Almost three and a half thousand broadband connections were tested over a five month period.

The firm found that users recorded an average download speed of 1.1Mbs, substantially lower than advertised.

However, some experts queried the results, saying that quantifying mobile broadband was almost impossible.

Rob Webber, Broadband Expert's commercial director, explained how they did the tests.

"These are tests performed by users on the Broadband Expert website. They select their internet service provider, their promised connection speed, and the sort of connection they have.

"As a result, some providers got tested more than others and we did not have enough data on British Telecom or Virgin Mobile to give a valid result," he said.

Overall, the result indicated speeds at 25% of the advertised maximum, and that is without BT being involved!
Rik
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This post reflects my own views, opinions and experience, not those of IDNet.

Simon

#1
Sep 22, 2009, 10:56:21
I can well believe that.
Simon.
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This post reflects my own views, opinions and experience, not those of IDNet.

Rik

#2
Sep 22, 2009, 10:58:34
Trust me, on Sunday evening, I wasn't getting 10%. ;D
Rik
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This post reflects my own views, opinions and experience, not those of IDNet.

Gary

#3
Sep 22, 2009, 11:22:13
Quote from: Rik on Sep 22, 2009, 10:58:34
Trust me, on Sunday evening, I wasn't getting 10%. ;D
Viagra could help the other 90%  :out:
Damned, if you do damned if you don't

Rik

#4
Sep 22, 2009, 11:25:05
:nana: :rofl: You mean it would turn my dongle into a ding a ling?  :evil:
Rik
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This post reflects my own views, opinions and experience, not those of IDNet.

Simon

#5
Sep 22, 2009, 11:25:44
;D
Simon.
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This post reflects my own views, opinions and experience, not those of IDNet.

Gary

#6
Sep 22, 2009, 11:32:18
Quote from: Rik on Sep 22, 2009, 11:25:05
:nana: :rofl: You mean it would turn my dongle into a ding a ling?  :evil:
:lol: it may well turn it into a hard drive, Rik  :whistle:
Damned, if you do damned if you don't

Rik

#7
Sep 22, 2009, 11:37:02
I'm all in a spin now. ;D
Rik
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This post reflects my own views, opinions and experience, not those of IDNet.

Gary

#8
Sep 22, 2009, 11:45:03
Damned, if you do damned if you don't

Glenn

#9
Sep 22, 2009, 13:49:33
Quote from: Gary on Sep 22, 2009, 11:32:18
:lol: it may well turn it into a hard drive, Rik  :whistle:

But could all be over in a flash.
Glenn
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This post reflects my own views, opinions and experience, not those of IDNet.

Rik

#10
Sep 22, 2009, 15:11:53
I'd be happy with non-volatile... :whistle:
Rik
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This post reflects my own views, opinions and experience, not those of IDNet.

Gary

#11
Sep 22, 2009, 15:36:26
Quote from: Rik on Sep 22, 2009, 15:11:53
I'd be happy with non-volatile... :whistle:
Most would just be happy with Solid State  ;)
Damned, if you do damned if you don't

Rik

#12
Sep 22, 2009, 15:38:22
 :hehe:
Rik
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This post reflects my own views, opinions and experience, not those of IDNet.

Colin Burns

#13
Sep 22, 2009, 15:58:31
the proximity thing is true though as me and danni found that if you want to go fast just stand under the mast  :whistle: we found great improvments in speeds and brain growth

Rik

#14
Sep 22, 2009, 16:01:41
Even better, run a cable to the mast. ;D
Rik
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This post reflects my own views, opinions and experience, not those of IDNet.

Colin Burns

#15
Sep 22, 2009, 17:14:38
wonder what the max length USB cable you can make is

hehehe

Sebby

#16
Sep 22, 2009, 19:32:48
This is far from surprising. ;D

esh

#17
Sep 23, 2009, 15:25:06
Topic hijack! Can anyone name any decent mobile broadband connections, since the ADSL2 I have to put up with in one of the rented places where I work is godawful? I'll settle for 100Kbit as long as it doesn't go down for hours on end with 5000+ ping :(
CompuServe 28.8k/33.6k 1994-1998, BT 56k 1998-2001, NTL Cable 512k 2001-2004, 2x F2S 1M 2004-2008, IDNet 8M 2008 - LLU 11M 2011

Rik

#18
Sep 23, 2009, 15:35:00
I've used 3 and Vodafone dongles, Esh. They are both OK if the signal is OK, but that can change in a few feet, so you really need to talk to people in the area.
Rik
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This post reflects my own views, opinions and experience, not those of IDNet.

plugwash

#19
Sep 27, 2009, 20:10:12
Quote from: Rik on Sep 22, 2009, 10:55:23
Are we surprised?
........
Overall, the result indicated speeds at 25% of the advertised maximum, and that is without BT being involved!
No, as is typical the mainstream media is taking ages to catch up to what is already pretty well known :/

Real life performance is much worse than advertised for a few reasons.

Firstly even under good conditions packet data systems rarely achive thier theoretical maximums because of congestion from other users.
Secondly most modern systems are rate adaptive, as the signal drops off or the noise increases the data rate will drop off.
Thirdly many areas simply don't have HSDPA/HSUPA coverage pushing the users back to 3G or even GPRS.

Frankly i'm surprised it's averaging as high as a megabit per second (Thats a third of the thoeretcial maximum for most dongles) though my only experiance of mobile broadband was on a moving train ;)
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