Are we surprised?
The BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8267313.stm) 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!
I can well believe that.
Trust me, on Sunday evening, I wasn't getting 10%. ;D
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:
:nana: :rofl: You mean it would turn my dongle into a ding a ling? :evil:
;D
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:
I'm all in a spin now. ;D
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.
I'd be happy with non-volatile... :whistle:
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 ;)
:hehe:
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
Even better, run a cable to the mast. ;D
wonder what the max length USB cable you can make is
hehehe
This is far from surprising. ;D
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 :(
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.
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 ;)