Getting rock solid 160KB/sec on Vodafone HSDPA today

Urban Weigl

I kid you not. I've been getting rock solid 160KB/sec on Vodafone's new HSDPA network all day. It's blowing away standard ADSL it seems!

It's even spiked as high as 207KB/sec for a few moments.

Now I await the upgrade to 14.4 Mbps.

Urban Weigl

I'm posting this in the IrelandOffline forum and not comms or mobiles because there was an active discussion about this particular product, and its pros and cons a while ago. It's also of interest to a lot of people who cannot get broadband, since 3G coverage exceeds that of ADSL currently.*

For example, there's no chance in hell I'd be able to get regular ADSL, as I am at least 4.2 miles from the exchange, and there's awful noise on the line.

*3 now also offer 3G data cards in Ireland. 3GB a month is €39.99, and the datacard sells for €49. You can find out more at http://www.three.ie/ihandsets/datacards.html

Blaster99

Did you have to do anything to get those higher speeds? I'm still stuck on 384kbps.

Urban Weigl

I had to change my APN to "hs.vodafone.ie" – using office.vodafone.ie will prevent you from being able to use the HSDPA network. If you have any trouble, ring data support. They'll be able to walk you through the process. Since the HSDPA network is live even in Ballyhaunis now, I suspect they've done their entire network at this point.

Unfortunately my card, the Huawei E620, only supports 1.8 Mbps, so I don't know if you could technically also connect at 3.6 Mbps. Only the Huawei E630 supports 3.6 Mbps at the moment, as well as the newer ExpressCards Vodafone is peddling in other markets, so we're having to wait a wee bit here. By the way, the card 3 is giving out to customers for €49 is the Huawei E630.

Blaster99

Good job. I'm getting around 500kbps it seems. Saw speeds over 1Mbps for a little bit. No worse than your average IBB installation. Upload speeds are a good bit better than before as well, 256kbps perhaps?

TCP/IP

I am getting 1.31Mbps and an upload of 325kbps really good service this is

Sparky

Urban I seriously owe you one.

My setting was office.vodafone.ie in the connection manager. I changed it to hs.vodafone.ie and it's amazing the difference it makes.

The max I have got within the last hour is 863kbps and 321kbps upload. It beats the previous values anyway.

It's amazing what two letters can do.

wirelessdude

where abouts are ye all getting these speeds?

Patrickof

Aaarrgghh, I've only got the slower version of the 3G card - and with a 12 month contract from July 1st, I can't upgrade it until next July.

Can the cards be bought seperately anywhere else (for a reasonable price)?

kaizersoze

Patrickof wrote:

Aaarrgghh, I've only got the slower version of the 3G card - and with a 12 month contract from July 1st, I can't upgrade it until next July.

Can the cards be bought seperately anywhere else (for a reasonable price)?

Have a read here: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054990043&referrerid=&highlight=vodafone%2Bdata
Aparently they will swap the incompatible cards.

aare

Just been on to Vodafone.

(For the second time this week...early monday morning customer care told me "soon, maybe January" :rolleyes:)

The rollout is pretty much limited to Dublin for now, with a suggestion of a couple of population centers around the country.

Still on GPRS here with tantalising glimpses of 3g I cannot "acquire".

Patrickof

I've just sent off an email to Vodafone to see if they'll swap the card.

Does the Huawei work with the liknsys router?

nobby2k1

Ok am slightly peeved now....
...I went down to the Vodafone shop yesterday and explained the situation about having the E618 card and needing the E620 one to avail of the higher speeds that I was told I'd have within a few months when I signed the contract. The guy in the shop wasn't very helpful and although he said he'd chat to his manager and ring me today I haven't heard anything back.
I can't get through to the shop, it just rings out and goes to a voice mail box that is already full. So I rang Vodafone and was talking to a nice woman who suggested I talk to the Data card section...she put me on hold and talked to a guy there and she told me what she had said to him and what his reply was...he said that I would need to pay for an upgrade???...Anyway she passed me through and I got put talking to a nice guy in the Data card section. Unfortunately although he understands what the problem is, he is unable to assist me as they don't have cards there. Advised me to go back to the shop....aarrrrgggghhhh!

Sparky

I tell ya one thing. If you were walking into the shop to get a datacard as a new customer, they would gladly cut their hand off for you too.

Urban Weigl

aare wrote:

The rollout is pretty much limited to Dublin for now, with a suggestion of a couple of population centers around the country.

It's not limited to Dublin, I think they've already upgraded their entire 3G network to HSDPA (as far as I can tell). Of course if you're only getting a GPRS signal, you won't get HSDPA. Which sucks. I really hope they improve their 3G coverage to 90%+ soon. I myself am using it 3 1/2 miles from Ballyhaunis, a small town in Mayo that only got DSL a few months ago. Where I am, DSL doesn't reach, and Eircom say I will never be able to get DSL due to how far from the town I am.

aare

Urban Weigl wrote:

It's not limited to Dublin, I think they've already upgraded their entire 3G network to HSDPA (as far as I can tell). Of course if you're only getting a GPRS signal, you won't get HSDPA. Which sucks. I really hope they improve their 3G coverage to 90%+ soon. I myself am using it 3 1/2 miles from Ballyhaunis, a small town in Mayo that only got DSL a few months ago. Where I am, DSL doesn't reach, and Eircom say I will never be able to get DSL due to how far from the town I am.

Then you are one of the lucky ones, because it definately isn't through the whole country yet, though there certainly are a few live HSDPA sites outside Dublin.

For myself I am in the annoying position of being able to identify a 3g signal without being able to acquire it, so that it is possible that when the transmitter in question (only recently live) switches to HSDPA the "cell breathing" effect may change just enough for me to be able to grab it...

However...I rely soley on my beautiful young assistant on the far side of two mountains to tell me what speed the local signal are running at, and so far, so 3g.

I live within two miles of a transmitter nobody wants to upgrade and another projected transmitter nobody wants to build.

THIS IS KILLING ME :eek:

themonk

sorry guys this maybe a bit off topic but how are vodafone enforcing the data cap on their data product .... 3 look ridiculus expensive with 49c per meg over the limit ... do vodafone charge on over usage or just throttle throughput until next month

Urban Weigl

themonk wrote:

sorry guys this maybe a bit off topic but how are vodafone enforcing the data cap on their data product .... 3 look ridiculus expensive with 49c per meg over the limit ... do vodafone charge on over usage or just throttle throughput until next month

I'm on Vodafone Unlimited Data, so there is no cap as such, rather it is unlimited subject to "fair use", which doesn't specify any limit or cap, at least not publicly. Hence, there is no charge for going over. Somebody on Boards claimed there was a hidden cap of 5 GB, but Vodafone's lawyers shut down the threat, as they are steadfast in their claim that there is no cap, and felt any claims to the contrary libelled them (or some such).

As I understand it, Vodafone reserve the right to withdraw the service from you if they feel, at their discretion, that you are "abusing" the unlimited service, if that makes sense. What appears to happen is that they warn you to use the service less. If you don't do so, the service will be withdrawn, and your contract terminated. I know of one case where they tried to charge for the remainder of the contract, even though it was they and not the customer who had terminated the contract. It's really a different discussion to this thread, as it gets a bit complicated. Suffice to say that unlike 3, you won't get charged per megabyte for going over 3000MB, though if you're a light user, 3's service does cost €9 less a month (€39.99 compared with €48.99). The data card is also €50 cheaper if you get it from 3, and it's a newer model that's capable of 3.6 instead of 1.8 Mbps.

smellslikeshoes

Vodaphone can charge you for going over aceptable usage if they choose to, its in the contract.

Urban Weigl

smellslikeshoes wrote:

Vodaphone can charge you for going over aceptable usage if they choose to, its in the contract.

As Vodafone:
a) Insists there is no cap, even going as far as having their lawyers demand boards takes down threads if there is a mention of such,
b) Don't mention what this "fair use" limit would be anywhere in their contract,
c) Don't say what they would charge for going over the limit they say doesn't exist,
d) Don't give their customers any reliable way of tracking their usage.

Need I go on? Suffice to say that they cannot charge. They might like to, but they cannot reasonably do so.

This is an entirely different discussion. Let's get back to HSDPA.

Urban Weigl

smellslikeshoes wrote:

Vodaphone can charge you for going over aceptable usage if they choose to, its in the contract.

As Vodafone:
a) Insists there is no cap, even going as far as having their lawyers demand boards takes down threads if there is a mention of such,
b) Don't mention what this "fair use" limit would be anywhere in their contract,
c) Don't say what they would charge for going over the limit they say doesn't exist,
d) Don't give their customers any reliable way of tracking their usage.

Need I go on? Suffice to say that they cannot charge. They might like to, but they cannot reasonably do so. On the other hand, what they can do is withdraw the service from any customer, at their discretion.

This is an entirely different discussion. Let's get back to HSDPA.

themonk

Thats good to know urban weigl ... many thanks for that insight ... methinks i might chance the vodafone as somehow somebody in a vodafone shop may decide to not explain this to me before buying:D

smellslikeshoes

If the excessive usage continues after receipt of a request to desist from or alter the nature of such usage, Vodafone reserves the right to charge the Customer for the excessive element of the usage at the standard rate or to suspend, at its absolute discretion,

Quoted from Vodafones terms and conditions.

They can charge you if they want, Not saying that it would be particularly feasible to prove what is excessive and when they can start charging or if it would be good business sense but they can charge you if they please.

themonk

i hope they doint want to shut this thread now ... lol ,,, the cat is i=out of the bag

skearon

nobby2k1 wrote:

Ok am slightly peeved now....
...I went down to the Vodafone shop yesterday and explained the situation about having the E618 card and needing the E620 one to avail of the higher speeds that I was told I'd have within a few months when I signed the contract. The guy in the shop wasn't very helpful and although he said he'd chat to his manager and ring me today I haven't heard anything back.
I can't get through to the shop, it just rings out and goes to a voice mail box that is already full. So I rang Vodafone and was talking to a nice woman who suggested I talk to the Data card section...she put me on hold and talked to a guy there and she told me what she had said to him and what his reply was...he said that I would need to pay for an upgrade???...Anyway she passed me through and I got put talking to a nice guy in the Data card section. Unfortunately although he understands what the problem is, he is unable to assist me as they don't have cards there. Advised me to go back to the shop....aarrrrgggghhhh!

I have one of the old Option 3G cards which doesn't support HSDPA, I emailed our Vodafone account manager on Monday asking for a change, she replied immediately and said she could offer me the USB HSDPA unit free of charge if I cancelled my existing mobile connect contract and took out a new one, which I did, and unit arrived yesterday.

When plugged into a usb port it appears as a memory card, launches its setup program, installs and then loads the data drivers, no need to use the CD. Very handy to bring onsite to places who dont have broadband or web access :-)

smellslikeshoes

themonk wrote:

i hope they doint want to shut this thread now ... lol ,,, the cat is i=out of the bag

Theres no reason to, They display the terms and conditions openly on their website.They only reason they could possibly want a topic closed is if their was debate on the "unlimited" issue or lack of issue.

thebman

Question about coverage of this. According to the website I'm in the 3G/GSM(GPRS) region which is beautfiul but does that mean I can get the HSDPA service or not?

Urban Weigl

brim4brim wrote:

Question about coverage of this. According to the website I'm in the 3G/GSM(GPRS) region which is beautfiul but does that mean I can get the HSDPA service or not?

Assuming you can get 3G, you can also get HSDPA (subject to the base station being upgraded). I had assumed that all 3G base stations had already been upgraded, seeing as HSDPA is live in Ballyhaunis, but even if that is not true, every last 3G base station will be upgraded soon. Coverage size is the same.

In brief, if you cannot get 3G, you cannot get HSDPA either. If you can get 3G, you will be able to get HSDPA, either now or in the very near future.

aare

Sadly, not even all of Dublin is upgraded yet.

I tried today in the Greenhills Rd/M50 area of Tallaght, an area postively bristling with Mobile phone masts, and it is only 3g.

Any attempt to connect to hs.vodafone.ie causes a 619 error, just as it does here on GPRS.

cgarvey

I've tried 3 locations (2 south dublin, 1 kildare) and none are HSDPA-enabled. I have the E618 card, but I should be able to get ~1.6-1.8Mbps on that (if I connnect to hs.vodafone.ie), right?

I rang Data Support team about switching to the USB unit and was told they can do nothing. It is a business account, but I don't have an account manager. So I'm not holding out much hope of going back to the Vodafone shop and having an easy swap out!

619 error can be many things, but hs.voda works for me on all sites whether or not I can get HSDPA service. Usually a shutdown of Vodafone client, gracefully stopping the card (the eject hardware icon in systray), take out the card and start over (without having to restart the machine).. does the job for me.

So now, who's gonna bring some shred of IoffL relevance to this thread ?

Urban Weigl

I know Vodafone sold some people the E618 card, telling them they would be able to take advantage of HSDPA once it was rolled out, but it turns out you need at least the E620 to take advantage of HSDPA.

cgarvey

Ah, to take advantage at all, or to take full advantage? That would explain why I'm stuck on 384kbps.. and makes me more pissed off at the Vodafone store. My first new year's resolution will be to resolve that!

Urban Weigl

The E618 only supports 384kbps. Unfortunately it appears that Vodafone sold the card anyway, with the promise of HSDPA. At least that's what happened to me, but they exchanged the card. So basically, while the E618 will work with the new APN (hs.vodafone.ie), that's only because it's backwards compatible -- it will never give you any speeds beyond 384kbps. The E620 supports 1.8 Mbps, and the E630 supports 3.6 Mbps.

I wish Vodafone would do what they do in Germany: give customers a 7.2 Mbps ExpressCard (that card is software upgradable to 7.2 Mbps, see http://www.novatelwireless.com/products/expresscard/merlin-xu870.html for specs), with an adapter so you can use it with older laptops as well. That way it would support even higher speeds, new laptops like the MacBook Pro, as well as older laptops like the PowerBook, which still had PC card slots. Oh well. It seems like we always have to wait before we get new "handsets" here, as it's the same with phones.

thebman

Is there any information on Vodafone's mast upgrade to support HSDPA or would I have to contact them.

Also it seems that it is a business offering. Do they just offer it to businesses?

Urban Weigl

brim4brim wrote:

Is there any information on Vodafone's mast upgrade to support HSDPA or would I have to contact them.

Vodafone's HSDPA upgrade is almost complete at this point. Assuming you have HSDPA-capable hardware, and assuming you're within 3G coverage, you should be able to connect at HSDPA-speeds already. If not now, in the near future.

Also it seems that it is a business offering. Do they just offer it to businesses?

Anybody can buy it. The price is €48.99 a month inclusive of VAT. The hardware is about €100 (€129 for the 3.6 Mbps HSDPA USB modem). There's a 12-month contract.

SalteeDog

HSDPA is live in Castlebar too. I just checked it and got 983kbps down, 362kbps up.

Now ...I seem to recall Voda tie their billing to the APN used so I'll be interested in seeing if i get an extra change for connecting to hp.vodafone.ie.

Urban Weigl

There is no extra charge for using hs.vodafone.ie. It is included in the Unlimited Data tariff.

l3rian

what's the average speed like on vodafone hsdpa? 1Mbps? are there speed increases on the way?

what sort of pings are you getting to google.ie, would it be suitable for gaming?

got a link to hsdpa pricing on vodafone site?

anyone using this in dublin city center?

Blaster99

In Dublin I'm getting 500kbps to 1Mbps type of speeds, more often 500kbps than 1Mbps. Pings are diabolical, I'm sure in the region of 200-300ms.

cgarvey

Can some of the wireless nuts confirm that those pings are artificially high? I.e. poor network management, or deliberate (to hamper VoIP, I'm sure). Or is GSM/3G technology just that poor?

wiredup

SalteeDog wrote:

HSDPA is live in Castlebar too. I just checked it and got 983kbps down, 362kbps up.

Now ...I seem to recall Voda tie their billing to the APN used so I'll be interested in seeing if i get an extra change for connecting to hp.vodafone.ie.

What is the range of this? I'm 10k south of Castlebar near Partry.
I've read that VOIP does not work over these mobile services but why not? Surely data is data?

cgarvey

VoIP does work on Vodafone 3G (and I presume the other 2 as well), but is not great quality. The reason on Voadafone is high pings (300ms is typical to US servers for me.. 180ms+ to Irish servers), as against connection speed/contention (which does tend to vary wildly). Skype is more forgiving that some other VoIP software/setups, but even that is not the best.

However, it is worth noting that Vodafone don't allow VoIP on their network, and reserve the right to actively block it.

Urban Weigl

I get pings of 100ms+ to Irish servers, the average being between 100 and 150 on an idle connection, though it can go as low as 90ms. That said, downloading at the same time causes sporadic ping times going into the hundreds. Skype seems to work exceptionally well most of the time (as long as I'm not downloading while using it), but as has been said, it's less sensitive than "normal" VoIP.

As far as I know, HSDPA is supposed to give you "real world" average pings between 100 and 200ms. Note that Vodafone's back-haul network doesn't seem to be the best. I've seen it congested at times, and noticed that while the first few hops are usually in the 90-120ms range, if their backhaul is congested, this can increase significantly. They still have some work left to do to tweak performance.

Like I've said before, due to limitations in the technology, I don't think UMTS/HSDPA replaces your home or office DSL connection. At least not for most people. What it does do is give you a mobile internet connection that's fast and usable, and all without having to worry about how high your next bill is going to be. You'll still want to keep your DSL.

Here's hop 17, the last hop, doing a traceroute to BT Ireland's main DNS server:
17 ns.esatclear.ie (194.145.128.1) 109.853 ms 109.661 ms 109.975 ms

What's HSDPA definitely not for? I am certain that due to capacity limitations, and because this is an unlimited product with a fair use policy, Vodafone would not take kindly to you running any kind of P2P file sharing applications! People downloading tens of gigabytes off P2P networks would cause congestion for sure, and that's fair enough.

watty

Not good for hosting/P2P (Cap), VOIP or games (ping/latency).

It is a viable replacement for a dialup especially if you don't want to a phone line at all. Since the number of phone line users has fallen however from 80%+ to 69%- eircom in long term are damaging possibility of DSL roll out and BB USO in future with the extortionate line rental.

DaBreno

SalteeDog wrote:

HSDPA is live in Castlebar too. I just checked it and got 983kbps down, 362kbps up.

Now ...I seem to recall Voda tie their billing to the APN used so I'll be interested in seeing if i get an extra change for connecting to hp.vodafone.ie.

Guys, I have the same service and was wondering how you all check your download speeds? Cheers.

mr_disc

Urban Weigl wrote:

I had to change my APN to "hs.vodafone.ie" – using office.vodafone.ie will prevent you from being able to use the HSDPA network.

Hi there..... can u tell me how to change this , ta

croo

In the tools menu of the "Vodafone Mobile Connetcion" app is the option "Mobile profiles" you can change it there ... or since it's not available everywhere perhaps creating a new profile is the better option!

colin

Urban Weigl

Hs.vodafone.ie is backwards compatible, and works even where only GPRS is available. Nevertheless, creating a separate profile is still a good idea -- just in case, or indeed for testing purposes.

croo

Urban Weigl wrote:

Hs.vodafone.ie is backwards compatible...

Really? I've only gotten an error message when I tried so far! hence my "new" profile suggestion... 619 I think the error was ... is it literally Hs with a capital H? I've been trying hs.vodafone.ie without success yet. I thought I was just unlucky in that the masts in my local were not yet enabled ...
I have a E620 card ... anyone any hints on why I'm getting these 619 errors? All I've done is change "office" to "hs"

colin

wirelessdude

croo wrote:

Really? I've only gotten an error message when I tried so far! hence my "new" profile suggestion... 619 I think the error was ... is it literally Hs with a capital H? I've been trying hs.vodafone.ie without success yet. I thought I was just unlucky in that the masts in my local were not yet enabled ...
I have a E620 card ... anyone any hints on why I'm getting these 619 errors? All I've done is change "office" to "hs"

colin

call 1850287000 to make sure that your number has the hs.vodafone.ie APN on your profile on the HLR

croo

wirelessdude wrote:

call 1850287000 to make sure that your number has the hs.vodafone.ie APN on your profile on the HLR

thx wirelessdude that was precisely what was wrong. It seems all accounts should have automatically had the hs.vodafone.ie APN added to their (serverside) profile, but for some unknown (to the vodafone) reason it wasn't on some accounts (such as mine).

colin