Mobile Broadband - Slower than Dial-up ??

Ray Cleere

Hi all,

Couple of queries on mobile broadband if anybody's got any info please would appreicate it :-

1. Speed: - Trialling Mobile Broadband USB modem from 3 Ireland at the mo after years in the dial-up wilderness. However, far from staisfactory, with bandwidth ranging from 300-500kbps for very brief (10 min) and rare periods (maybe seen this on 3 occasions over 4 or 5 days), to the more consistent, criminal usually sub-dialup lower double digit kbps being experienced by me for the most part and for the past 2 hours in particular (back on dialup for this post) and def appearing to become the rule rather than the exception. My altogether satisfactory throughputs when I'm connected via cable at work, or even during the aforementioned 10 minute extravanganzas would seem to suggest that there's no tweaking required on my hardware / registry settings etc, but rather an issue at the network provider level. There's a 3 Ireland mast situated less than a mile away and I've pretty much got the full 5 bars all the time.

Is this normal or to be expected? Can a customer be expected to entertain such a variance in throughput to an extent such that dial-up is rendered more desirable than 'broadband' due to at least its consistent reliable performance, albeit at lower speed? Is this down to contention, oversubsription (I was informed that 3 Ireland are performing a major network upgrade in a few months but don't think I'll be letting my trial money-back period elapse with the current performance while waiting around for this to happen).

2. If there's any resolution to the speed issue , there is one more matter of concern with 3 Ireland's service. I need to be able to VPN into my office over the HSDPA/3G service. My VPN settings appear to be perfectly valid, as demonstrated by my ability to successfully connect via 02's Mobile Broadband Open Internet connection (APN: open.internet). I am unable to connect however via 3 Ireland's default HSDPA profile (APN: 3ireland.ie). My theory at the moment is that 3's default profile is analogous to 02's restricted Internet connection (APN: Internet, rather than Open.Internet), through which I have also been unsuccessful in attaching to my work servers, with same error message reported by both services. Does anybody know if there is an alternative unrestricted 3 IRL APN, which will allow my computer to negotiate a successful VPN connection as via 02's open.internet APN, or advice on any alt resolution?

Sorry for the long-winded narrative, but wanted to get all in for some clarity hopefully. And as far as I can see, 3 Ireland only offer Support Lite on their website.

Thanx in advance for any info / advice. Rgds Ray.

Urban Weigl

1. Speed. Where I am, it's still fine as far as speed is concerned, though it isn't as fast as it used to be in the evenings. I am told they are upgrading their network, but I have little hope that this will occur in the next few days as they keep telling people. It will take at least a month, if not longer. It seems like 3 were caught out -- they weren't expecting such a high take up initially, so they didn't upgrade their network in time. Kind of an interesting problem for a company to face.

2. VPN works fine for me, as does Gmail SMTP, etc etc. Can't say I have had any problems with anything being blocked. That being said, 3 aren't giving people real IP addresses at the moment, everything seems to be behind a NAT router, for the technically minded. As a result, this could interfere with some VPN's.

Urban Weigl

Have you considered O2's mobile broadband?

SkepticOne

No, in my experience mobile broadband is better than that. I support several (not 3) connections and they always get a multiple of dial-up when in range. I would not stand for anything less.

I would not pay for the service you are describing and would ask for my money back immediately. Unfortunately, too many people are willing to pay for supstandard service in this country.

Don't bother with VPNs. Get your money back. VPNs are for when you have a good connection. There is no intrinsic problem with VPN and mobile broadband. What did 3 say when you asked them about VPNs?

cgarvey

Moved IoffL > Wireless

Have experienced similar contention on Vodafone's equivalent, but it is rare. It might be worth ringing 3 to see if it's a problem with just that cell, or if they've anything more to offer. Otherwise cash-in on that money back trial!

Ray Cleere

Thanks all for interest and comments.

Briefly:

Speed: Think the main problem here was simply problems experienced with the 3 network as a result of our wonderful weather recently. This was suggested by my 3 agent and I've read same in posts on this site. Had speeds to support streaming video this morning but now I'm back to 50-100kbps which isn't bad I suppose.

02 BB: I'm strongly considering running with O2 regardless; their software/hardware just seems to have far more 'weight' and they have a published upgrade path. I am also p'd off with this 3 'deposit' thing (which I had to pay). Also, my work has a dedicated APN with 02, so no more VPN issue, speaking of which...

VPN: Having spoken with the 3 agent, apparently I have to ring the 3 call centre in India and they will put me in touch with some great people in the UK who may be able to advise on my 3-exclusive VPN problem. In another life maybe...

Thanks again for your interest and responses all. RC.

Bulmers

Urban Weigl wrote:

1. Speed. Where I am, it's still fine as far as speed is concerned, though it isn't as fast as it used to be in the evenings. I am told they are upgrading their network, but I have little hope that this will occur in the next few days as they keep telling people. It will take at least a month, if not longer. It seems like 3 were caught out -- they weren't expecting such a high take up initially, so they didn't upgrade their network in time. Kind of an interesting problem for a company to face.

This was always going to happen and to be honest, this will only get worse before it gets better..to upgrade their backhaul to accomodate this is a big job and dont let any CS agent tell you a few weeks, min 3/4months, and it's very expensive aswell, mobile broadband cant be making them too much money, ~€250/yr..not alot, when ARPU on mobile phone bills is averaging at ~€540/yr..

I think the best of this has been seen from 3, the technology has been demonstrated and proved to work, the likes of Voda and O2 wont suffer with this as much because of more cell sites and probably more backhaul available for the traffic