3 Data Card: minimum speed?

DMC

Hi folks, trying to find out a little bit more info in Vodafone and 3 for 3G Broadband. I know at present that I don't have 3G coverage where I am, but Vodafone have said that the minimum speed you can connect on with is 56k (better than 28k through the phone line here)

I've rang 3, they do have plans for masts in the next 3 months. They couldn't give me a guarantee on minimum speeds.

Does anyone know what the minimum connection speeds that can be got on 3?

BigMoose

56k is the max speed you'll get when only in 2G coverage. You could in theory get anything between 0 and 56 depending on your cell etc. I dont know of any gauranteed min although to be fair when using GPRS I've normally got around 56k out of it.

watty

Minimum speed I'd think is 14k or 28k on poor GSM signal.

Maybe minimum on a Vodaphone GPRS mast is 56k.. But is that with a "busy cell"?

I'm 100% convinced there is a minimum speed. Other than refusing connections (a minimum speed of zero) you inherently can't control contention on a mobile network.

So if they have a genuine minimum speed of 56k, logically, sometimes you will get zero K, i.e. no connection. DSL / ISDN/dialup/Fixed wireless can be arranged with any contention you care to pay for. Mobile Wireless can't.

godskitchen

DMC wrote:

Hi folks, trying to find out a little bit more info in Vodafone and 3 for 3G Broadband. I know at present that I don't have 3G coverage where I am, but Vodafone have said that the minimum speed you can connect on with is 56k (better than 28k through the phone line here)

I've rang 3, they do have plans for masts in the next 3 months. They couldn't give me a guarantee on minimum speeds.

Does anyone know what the minimum connection speeds that can be got on 3?

If you have good signal and Three do upgrade or put in new masts then your speed will be 3.6Mb................now while i dont like the company i do understand why they wont give you a minimum speed.......they can tell you what the max is, like car manufactures and MPG, but there are so many things that can effect your speed, things not under their control, so its hard to say what the "guaranteed" minimum would be.

In my experience before i could get 3G and was only getting GPRS, it was better than dial up, no limit on time on line, free the phone line, felt like a more solid connection. the best thing you can do is get one of the cards and try it out, both now come with a "trial" period........I would say get the Three card, if they say they will be coming to your area soon, saying that i wouldnt be too quick to believe anything Three's customer service staff say, my dog knows more about their network than they do.

DMC

Anything is better than the 28.8k I'm connected on at the moment. The line here is a carrier line and frequently disconnects. But as I make infrequent visits to here, it would do for a quick splash and dash at e-mail etc. When I have to spend prolonged periods on the net (like today), if GPRS at least gives me 56k, that I would tolerate. I would also get to use the 3G card in known 3G areas.

I hear you about 3's customer service... the ones in the shop looked more keen for a sale than actual worrying if it worked or not, but the 14 day trial its worth it.

Can I ask what you were connecting on at when in GPRS only? Vodafone? Was it hovering under, but never getting upto 56k, like a dial-up landline phone connection, or was it bang on 56k?

godskitchen

DMC wrote:

Anything is better than the 28.8k I'm connected on at the moment. The line here is a carrier line and frequently disconnects. But as I make infrequent visits to here, it would do for a quick splash and dash at e-mail etc. When I have to spend prolonged periods on the net (like today), if GPRS at least gives me 56k, that I would tolerate. I would also get to use the 3G card in known 3G areas.

I hear you about 3's customer service... the ones in the shop looked more keen for a sale than actual worrying if it worked or not, but the 14 day trial its worth it.

Can I ask what you were connecting on at when in GPRS only? Vodafone? Was it hovering under, but never getting upto 56k, like a dial-up landline phone connection, or was it bang on 56k?

Its hard to say what it connects at, windows says it connects at 238kbps,which is not the figure to go by. I was getting speeds of around 50-60k all the time, it never really went below that, again i must stress it depends on whats going on around you on your cell..............for me its not a problem, i live in the middle of no where, so not only can i blast music, i also dont have to put up with 13year old girls hogging bandwidth downloading the latest Justin twitlake song!

DMC

The cell can be busy. In an area with 8 Vodafone mobiles within 3 houses, I can sometimes get network busy, but 9/10 its fine.

I'll think I take them up on their 14 day offer.....

mcaul

With my experience of three the minimum speed I get is about 600kbs (kildare town area) and the maximum about 1.8mb (athy) - Good Athy service is probably because I'm located about 200 yards from the mast on top of the tegral building. As for 3.6mb - theoretically its probably possible if you're a few yards fom the mast but in reality speeds are 800 - 1.4mb Still rather good if you've had problems getting BB from landlines.

All three transmitters are now on HDSPA, so any new transmitter wil automatically be on the system.

Customer service improving - they now take your details and get someone with tech knowledge to ring you back!

ml

When I connect to my Data Card I can get 4 bars on the GPRS/EDGE Voda IE (R). I thought this would mean that I should be getting high speeds, but under my Transfer Rate Data, I have:
Sent Current: 12.0 kbps
Sent Top: 52.0kbps
Receive Current: 0.6kbps
Received Top: 48.0kbps.

The "Sent Current" varies, but rarely goes over 30.0kbps

ml

Here is the reply I got from Three to my above query:

When your 3 data card is connected to the 2.5G part of the network (Vodafone), you will receive download speeds up to 56Kbps. Only when your data card is connected to the 3G network will you receive download speeds up to 384Kbps.

watty

Note the weasel "up to 56Kbps" and "up to 384Kbps"

Contention and signal strength can result in slower speeds. I don't beleive there is any minimum, just typical and peak.

The HSDPA should peak at over 3000kbps if you are the only person in the sector and have a "good" signal.

ml

is there anything I can do to improve my speed? If i'm getting 4 bars on the Voda Network, surely I should be getting faster speeds than in the low 20's.

mcaul

ml wrote:

is there anything I can do to improve my speed? If i'm getting 4 bars on the Voda Network, surely I should be getting faster speeds than in the low 20's.

You musn't be in a 3g area - so you won't get better than 56k until you have 3g service from either VF or 3. - Not worth it at €39 a month. - Dial up would probably be better.

ml

If dial up is my best option I have nothing! My dial up never went over 17 kbps!

If I am able to get a 3 G signal will it automatically pick that one up first?
Because I think I did see the 3G network on it once, but not since.

watty

mcaul wrote:

You musn't be in a 3g area - so you won't get better than 56k until you have 3g service from either VF or 3. - Not worth it at €39 a month. - Dial up would probably be better.

Or O2.

If you ditch a land line and save line rental, even GPRS only on HSDPA/3G datacard can work out cheaper.

BigMoose

ml wrote:

If I am able to get a 3 G signal will it automatically pick that one up first?
Because I think I did see the 3G network on it once, but not since.

You can tell the software that comes with the Voda cards what your network preference is - ie 3G only, 2G only or both. If you say both and the 3G signal is weak it will probably drop to 2G. However I've had good speeds on 3G with only 1 bar coverage so it can be advantagous to set it to 3G only to see if you have any kind of signal. No idea about the 3 or O2 software...

ml

yeah thats exactly what I want to do for my Three data card, didn't see any settings to select 3G only. Anyone any ideas?

smadger

ml wrote:

yeah thats exactly what I want to do for my Three data card, didn't see any settings to select 3G only. Anyone any ideas?

It defaults to '3G only' I think, but you can change it from the settings tab (second tab at bottom I think). Not at home to check now, but IIRC it'll be greyed out if you're connected. I definitely did change it to '3G preferred' at one stage, when I was having issues, and it attached to Vodafone GPRS, since 3 use them for GPRS/GSM.

godskitchen

ml wrote:

If dial up is my best option I have nothing! My dial up never went over 17 kbps!

If I am able to get a 3 G signal will it automatically pick that one up first?
Because I think I did see the 3G network on it once, but not since.

Get yourself a 3G external antenna, my vodafone card came with a small antenna, the Three came with nothing, so i am assuming yours came with nothing either.......the standard little antenna is handy for seeing where signal is, as you dont have to hold the laptop above your head. anyway i got myself a 3G antenna from http://www.thiecom.de the site seems to be down at the moment, do a search on here for "3G antenna" I and others have discussed it many times, you will find all the info you need.

ml

reply from Three:


Some data cards allow extension aerials to be attached to them. Even with an extension aerial, you may still only connect at a maximum speed up to 56Kbps in a 2.5G area. This is because the speed that your Data Card downloads at is network dependent.

JNive

it will be interesting to see what O2 bring in the near future, in terms of 3G etc, they already have 3G Sim Cards shipping, and have quite a few more existing ones to shred from dealers, i was laughing when i heard it.

I myself will probbaly end up getting set up with the Vodafone 3G system, using the HSDPA add-in for laptops here in Dublin, i'll give some feedback on that once its running.

DMC

Time for a reply to the thread

Firstly, I went with Vodafone. The USB modem would not install on my laptop, even under different profiles and the help of the support centre. I ended up bringing the modem back after less than 24 hrs for a refund.

I then went into the 3 store, and picked up their 3 data card. As it is PCMCIA, there wasnt the same issue installing the drivers (even though it is the same manufacturer as the Vodafone, Huawei)

Speeds are impressive, I did max out at 3.1Mbps in a proper 3G area. Then when I brought it home, I was easily getting 45-51kbps in GPRS/EDGE on the Vodafone network. The software, as ml reported, shows what your current speed is and what was the max speed reached.

I'll keep it, me thinks.

A couple of things to note. 1) its laptop only, with its PCMCIA card. 2) its software doesnt appear to be keeping a count of the data used, which may make for fun and games, with respect to allowance watching.

Lets hope they are true to their word and put up a mast or two locally!

JNive

the vodafone one ill be getting will also be the pcmcia card, which is issued to a few OEMs, in my case, Dell, since its a Dell Laptop ill be getting.

And since its vista and its coming pre-installed from Dell with the card etc, im praying to the starts that it all works ok lol.

watty

New Dell laptops use PCExpress Card, not PCMCIA/PCcard. I don't know what the Dells with 3G data built in use. Mayb e an OEM module like dailup modems in the old days.

Bulmers

I dont think 3g signal strength has anything to do with the download speed, HSDPA is packet so once you have even 1 bar reception, it will work the same as having 4/5. I heard the aerials aswell make a difference.

Speed of HSDPA depends on the bandwidth available at the basestation so 3 is relatively new, relatively low customer base, alot of spare capacity on the network.

The main problem if only having one bar is could cause you to drop off the cell, cell breathing etc but this is not likely as not many users on the network.

I would also assume the cards will all default to 3 as they would have to pay vodafone to use their GPRS etc so probably losing money.

JNive

For those that might be looking for other similar solutions, at the moment the plan at O2 is to launch with the same Huawei USB modem that Vodafone provides.

Our man in Havana

Question: If you can pick up any 3G signal on a 3G vodafone phone will their broadband work?

Also can private citizens avail of this offering or is it a business only product?

godskitchen

Bond-007 wrote:

Question: If you can pick up any 3G signal on a 3G vodafone phone will their broadband work?

Also can private citizens avail of this offering or is it a business only product?

Yes is the short answer to both questions.

Our man in Havana

Thanks!

rebel.ranter

Signal Strength will eventually have an effect on download speeds on 3G/HSDPA, right now the networkk is relatively un-used, as users grow the noise floor rises meaning the signal strength you require to maintain the same level of quality will be reater. So enjoy the clean networks while it lasts. But right now devices can work at ridiculously low signal strength when compared to that of a 2G voice call.
BTW, if you can, avoid the Huawei USB devices, they are very poor quality, go for the data card as it is a much better proposition. If you have no PCMCIA slot wait another little while to see what else comes available.

Our man in Havana

I will go for the router/data card option tbh.

godskitchen

Bond-007 wrote:

I will go for the router/data card option tbh.

Its for the best, you can add a external antenna too, which is nice.

watty

The Linksys router seems OK. It has PCMCIA/PCcard slot, WiFi, 4 port switch and can take ethernet WAN (Wireless, cable etc modems, or even ADSL via bridge mode). SO if you do eventually get real Broadband, the same box works and the 3G card becomes a backup link.