Hello,
After Vodafone announced the commencement of their 3G services that can give top speeds of 21 Mbps, it was tried out on a Nokia N82 handset which has UMTS 2100 support and download speed upto 3 Mbps. The speed of surfing is a wee bit faster than EDGE but not very fast and a mobile speed test showed a download speed of 281 Kbps, a far cry from the original claims.
What have been other peoples' 3G experiences?
2011/3/16 Rony gnulinuxist@gmail.com:
What have been other peoples' 3G experiences?
I got complimentary access to Airtel's 3G in Mumbai. The only test I did was to play a Youtube video using both 3G and Wifi - the experience was smooth in both cases (ie, the video didn't pause for "buffering" at all). I didn't try a speed test - I should.
The handset was a Nokia N900.
The pricing is quite steep - www.airtel.in/3G. I pay Rs. 98 for 2GB monthly now, with 3G I'll pay Rs. 750 for a similar package.
Binand
On Wed, 2011-03-16 at 23:51 +0530, Rony wrote:
What have been other peoples' 3G experiences?
my BSNL 3G is faster than my BSNL broadband and works everywhere I have been in India except in Erode and Mumbai.
What have been other peoples' 3G experiences?
- I have tested both BSNL and Airtel 3G in Chennai. I found Airtel 3G connection being considerable faster than BSNL. However, BSNL does the job for me as well for emails, limited browsing and navigation in Chennai. And advantage with BSNL is the price.
- BSNL did not work for me on roaming when I travelled recently to Maharashtra, Gujrat and Rajasthan in the recent past. Did not try Airtel 3G while on roaming.
Thanks gs
On 16 Mar 2011 23:59, "Rony" gnulinuxist@gmail.com wrote:
What have been other peoples' 3G experiences?
I have been using MTNL 3G since past 4 months. I get 3G signals at some places only. The speeds were okayish till couple of months back but has almost come down to match edge speeds mostly now.
I would be trying out vodafone 3G from this week.
On Thursday 17 March 2011 12:22 PM, Mehul Ved wrote:
On 16 Mar 2011 23:59, "Rony"gnulinuxist@gmail.com wrote:
What have been other peoples' 3G experiences?
I have been using MTNL 3G since past 4 months. I get 3G signals at some places only. The speeds were okayish till couple of months back but has almost come down to match edge speeds mostly now.
I would be trying out vodafone 3G from this week.
Guys, please do a speed test to get actual figures. Youtube is not a good reference as it works even without 3G in many phones using EDGE. Some phones have software that download these videos at low resolutions fit for mobile screens. While we expreience a relatively faster speed in 3G, it is far from the many Mbps that they claim.
Like all earlier mobile internet technologies, are we doomed to be stuck with poor performing speeds and services?
On Thu, 2011-03-17 at 13:17 +0530, Rony wrote:
Like all earlier mobile internet technologies, are we doomed to be stuck with poor performing speeds and services?
yes - because they will sell far above capacity
2011/3/17 Rony gnulinuxist@gmail.com:
Guys, please do a speed test to get actual figures. Youtube is not a
I was looking for a site that works reasonably well on my N900 (speedtest.net's flash thingy breaks on my phone). This is what I got from inside my home:
https://picasaweb.google.com/112929706764240025005/Other#5584964411058302146
My home has pretty poor coverage. I will be going out to Versova area later in the afternoon, will re-run the speed test then.
The site is www.bandwidthplace.com.
Some phones have software that download these videos at low resolutions fit for mobile screens. While we expreience a relatively faster speed in 3G, it is far from the many Mbps that they claim.
That is fine. I am not comparing Youtube speeds between GPRS and 3G - not Youtube between DSL and 3G. With 3G, the frequent buffering of the videos doesn't happen, and the performance is barely discernible from my DSL connection's performance. My phone doesn't optimize Youtube in any way.
Binand
2011/3/17 Rony gnulinuxist@gmail.com:
Guys, please do a speed test to get actual figures.
I did at three points between Andheri (W) and Malad (W) today. All three readings were consistent with 4 Mbps down/512 Kbps up. The three readings were:
4.06/529 (Versova) 4.00/489 (Oshiwara) 3.46/490 (My apartment block ground floor, which as I mentioned has somewhat weak Airtel signal).
I still can't make up my mind whether it is worth the jump from Rs. 98 per month to Rs. 750 per month. :-)
Binand
On Thursday 17 March 2011 02:04 PM, Kenneth Gonsalves wrote:
On Thu, 2011-03-17 at 13:17 +0530, Rony wrote:
Like all earlier mobile internet technologies, are we doomed to be stuck with poor performing speeds and services?
yes - because they will sell far above capacity
True but they have just begun taking in customers. Has anyone got speeds of Tata and Reliance?
On Thursday 17 March 2011 02:09 PM, Binand Sethumadhavan wrote:
I was looking for a site that works reasonably well on my N900 (speedtest.net's flash thingy breaks on my phone). This is what I got from inside my home:
https://picasaweb.google.com/112929706764240025005/Other#5584964411058302146
In numerical values it means Download speed 1.1 Mbps and Upload 404 Kbps. Good speed but not up to expectations.
On Thursday 17 March 2011 09:42 PM, Binand Sethumadhavan wrote:
2011/3/17 Ronygnulinuxist@gmail.com:
Guys, please do a speed test to get actual figures.
I did at three points between Andheri (W) and Malad (W) today. All three readings were consistent with 4 Mbps down/512 Kbps up. The three readings were:
4.06/529 (Versova) 4.00/489 (Oshiwara) 3.46/490 (My apartment block ground floor, which as I mentioned has somewhat weak Airtel signal).
Figures are very impressive. However your earlier figure mentions 1.1 Mbps.
I still can't make up my mind whether it is worth the jump from Rs. 98 per month to Rs. 750 per month. :-)
Do keep in mind that the bigger the flow, the sooner it gets used up, as it had happened with MTNL users on 2 Mbps and limited data plans who got heavy monthly bills.
On 18 March 2011 00:02, Rony gnulinuxist@gmail.com wrote:
Figures are very impressive. However your earlier figure mentions 1.1 Mbps.
I still can't make up my mind whether it is worth the jump from Rs. 98 per month to Rs. 750 per month. :-)
1.1 Mbps for Rs.750 per month - is this an UNLIMITED plan? If yes, then that's just too good!
Regards
Hameed
On 18 March 2011 00:02, Rony gnulinuxist@gmail.com wrote:
On Thursday 17 March 2011 09:42 PM, Binand Sethumadhavan wrote:
2011/3/17 Ronygnulinuxist@gmail.com:
Guys, please do a speed test to get actual figures.
I did at three points between Andheri (W) and Malad (W) today. All three readings were consistent with 4 Mbps down/512 Kbps up. The three readings were:
4.06/529 (Versova) 4.00/489 (Oshiwara) 3.46/490 (My apartment block ground floor, which as I mentioned has somewhat weak Airtel signal).
Figures are very impressive. However your earlier figure mentions 1.1 Mbps.
I still can't make up my mind whether it is worth the jump from Rs. 98 per month to Rs. 750 per month. :-)
Do keep in mind that the bigger the flow, the sooner it gets used up, as it had happened with MTNL users on 2 Mbps and limited data plans who got heavy monthly bills.
--
As a proper list etiquette... Please trim your replies. Post your replies below the relevant original text, leaving a line space. Do not re-use old messages to write new ones.
Regards,
Rony.
On Thu, Mar 17, 2011 at 1:17 PM, Rony gnulinuxist@gmail.com wrote:
Guys, please do a speed test to get actual figures.
In all the speedtest.net tests I ran, only once did I get download speed above 512kbps and upload speed above 256kbps. Never have I got download speed above 1 mbps in any of the tests I conducted so far.
On Friday 18 March 2011 01:22 AM, Mehul Ved wrote:
On Thu, Mar 17, 2011 at 1:17 PM, Ronygnulinuxist@gmail.com wrote:
Guys, please do a speed test to get actual figures.
In all the speedtest.net tests I ran, only once did I get download speed above 512kbps and upload speed above 256kbps. Never have I got download speed above 1 mbps in any of the tests I conducted so far.
Hmm. Once you get the Vodafone 3G up, do post the speed test results.
On Thu, Mar 17, 2011 at 10:05 PM, Rony wrote:
True but they have just begun taking in customers. Has anyone got speeds of Tata and Reliance?
I guess, this may be a off-track speed report, but I have got relatively speeds of using Reliance Netconnect BB+. Now, even though that isn't 3G and cannot reach 21 Mbps - it is good enough.
I'm in Bangalore and I get 1.54 Mbps download (nearly 1 Mbps for most of the times) and 244 Kbps upload (bandwidthplace.com).
I also, think, my area (Bannerghatta Road) has far less number of users who use Reliance Netconnect BB+. (Also, a reliance tower is just about 25 meters away from my building, though I think, that shouldn't really matter much).
-- Roshan Baladhanvi
On Saturday 19 March 2011 12:38 PM, Roshan wrote:
On Thu, Mar 17, 2011 at 10:05 PM, Rony wrote:
True but they have just begun taking in customers. Has anyone got speeds of Tata and Reliance?
I guess, this may be a off-track speed report, but I have got relatively speeds of using Reliance Netconnect BB+. Now, even though that isn't 3G and cannot reach 21 Mbps - it is good enough.
I'm in Bangalore and I get 1.54 Mbps download (nearly 1 Mbps for most of the times) and 244 Kbps upload (bandwidthplace.com).
Netconnect BB+ is also 3G but for CDMA networks. 1.54 Mbps that you get is quite decent compared to the pathetic GSM's 3G. If possible check the same speed using a CDMA phone that supports EVDO.
CDMA 2000 is the common platform and on that they have 1X for GPRS/EDGE type speeds (144 Kbps) and EVDO for speeds upto 2.4 Mbps. In order to keep backward compatibility with older phones, CDMA uses the same existing bands therefore has speed limits.
GSM uses a different band altogether for 3G, to get more speeds and that is why they can ( in theory only ) reach speed of 21 Mbps and beyond. For that the Govt. had recently auctioned new 3G bands to the mobile operators. For India it is the 2100 Mhz. band using UMTS.
On Fri, Mar 18, 2011 at 12:24 PM, Rony gnulinuxist@gmail.com wrote:
Hmm. Once you get the Vodafone 3G up, do post the speed test results.
So Vodafone 3G got activated for me today. The speed has varied between 300kbps to 1650kbps so far. I'll know better once I get out and try it at different places. Here's result on speedtest.net while tethering to my PC http://www.speedtest.net/result/1213350702.png
2011/3/22 Mehul Ved mehul.n.ved@gmail.com:
Here's result on speedtest.net while tethering to my PC http://www.speedtest.net/result/1213350702.png
That's somewhat strange - 1.1 Mbps download, 2.6 Mbps upload??
Do you have pricing information? I searched Vodafone's website to no avail.
So far, Airtel 1, Vodafone 0.
Binand
On Tuesday 22 March 2011 06:45 AM, Binand Sethumadhavan wrote:
2011/3/22 Mehul Vedmehul.n.ved@gmail.com:
Here's result on speedtest.net while tethering to my PC http://www.speedtest.net/result/1213350702.png
That's somewhat strange - 1.1 Mbps download, 2.6 Mbps upload??
Do you have pricing information? I searched Vodafone's website to no avail.
So far, Airtel 1, Vodafone 0.
The 3G speeds appear to be phone dependent too. I do have some doubts about these speed test softwares. A few days ago, my Samsung Star on Vodafone with only EDGE, no 3G, no wifi gave wild speed test results of 19?? Kbps which is absurd (1.9 Mbps) . Even another site kept saying the file (1 MB) is too small to check download speeds. After some repeated tests, my net stopped working. My pre-paid balance had got over.
2011/3/22 Rony gnulinuxist@gmail.com:
I do have some doubts about these speed test softwares.
Rony, Rony... a few days back you said:
"Guys, please do a speed test to get actual figures."
So which is it? Do you trust speed tests or do you not?
Anyway, in both tests (speed test and actual usability test), Airtel 3G performed well for me. I really love the speed (I suppose it helps to have a really advanced phone like the N900) of 3G - it is great to use otherwise-problematic sites (like Google Docs, Youtube etc.) with 3G.
The last piece is the pricing. I have posted Airtel's pricing information, please can someone post that of its competitors?
Binand
2011/3/22 Binand Sethumadhavan binand@gmail.com:
So far, Airtel 1, Vodafone 0.
Here's some MSM coverage on 3G:
http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/3g/s-maiden-run-leaves-users-str...
Seems like the only complaint with Airtel is the cost. :-)
Binand
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Binand Sethumadhavan -
Gourav Shah -
Hameed -
Kenneth Gonsalves -
Mehul Ved -
Rony -
Roshan