O2 Mainly Ups, but some Downs

Burr

I just want to share my experiences of O2 E220 3G/HSDPA broadband .

I am connected in a rural area, near to a DSL enabled town, and have generally had a very positive experience with O2 performance.

Away from peak times, I generally have typical download speeds of of 1.2 to 2.2 MB. Between 6PM and 11.30PM my typical download speeds are 800kB to 1.3MB. These are short term speeds, up to 10 seconds, reducing to about 50% after 10 seconds. Pings range 120 to 350 (HEANET)

Every now and then though, I have really poor speeds particularily at peak times. - This lasts for a few days typically, followed by a dramatic improvement.

I have seen Edge appear here last week in Co. Kilkenny, but disappear again. Edge was displayed, but only GPRS speeds were available. So as yet I have no experienced edge.

GPRS performance is very poor, not even close to 50+kb, and is a lot slower that 25k-ish landline.

Signal strength is not to important, with 2 bars being as good as is required. 1 bar will allow 1MB with ease (If you want greater rsignal resolution, google for "E620 tool" which works excellently). Keep in mind that the bars are not in realtime- probably refreshed every 15 seconds ?

In my experience, customer service does not answer or acknowledge emails at all.

I have had loaners of vodafone and 3 at this location. O2 is significantly better than Vodafone, and cannot be compared at all with 3s poor performance. Having said that, I have two friends reporting significant improvements on 3 in the last few days. Vodafone GPRS is also poor.

Never any problems accessing any sites.

I currently am encountering problems with O2 for two days now, with peak time speeds between 200 and 350 kB. Have any other O2 customers had any issues on 22nd-23rd October ?

Just before I sign off, I have run speedtest.ie at 11.50 to 11.55 PM. Results below.

down Up
990 269
753 156
1370 95

Thanks
Burr

Sponge Bob

EDGE is not on everywhere yet , half of cells maybe or slightly more. You could have picked up EDGE from another cell.

I would think its coming to your cell shortly ( next 3-4 months) if its not there now.

Burr

Thanks SB - Do you know if there a list of edge enabled stations, or any roll out plan publically available. I guess not !

Are you on O2 broadband yourself ?

Sponge Bob

I have used it on occasion , yes. I only recently got EDGE on my local ( non 3g) cell which was fairly OK, 170 down and 30up was what I got in drizzle .

Mainly stick to the 3mbit DSL though

Burr

DSL is quite simply your only man!. but living 10+ km of copper from nearest exchange (not yet enabled) is a problem. Was with two wireless operators for last four years, but wasn't up to scratch at all. Moving to O2 is largely a positive move, as at least it is always there.

Interested in edge as I occassionaly need it for work in one non-3g area. GPRS is brutal in my experience, much worse than slow dial-up.

jor el

O2 have gotten better for me over the last month or so. I've not noticed GPRS being all that bad either, pretty much the same as dial up most of the time.

barryfitz

Burr wrote: »

Do you know if there a list of edge enabled stations, or any roll out plan publically available.

Comreg.ie have this site viewer. details the masts and their capabilities.

galactus

Sponge Bob wrote: »

EDGE is not on everywhere yet , half of cells maybe or slightly more. You could have picked up EDGE from another cell.

I would think its coming to your cell shortly ( next 3-4 months) if its not there now.

Sorry for being dense but what is EDGE?

Burr

galactus wrote: »

Sorry for being dense but what is EDGE?

What is edge - Good old Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Data_Rates_for_GSM_Evolution

As for the Comreg siteviewer, it does not contain edge info.

galactus

Burr wrote: »

What is edge - Good old Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Data_Rates_for_GSM_Evolution

As for the Comreg siteviewer, it does not contain edge info.

Thanks but that's a bit incomprehensible so I read this instead.

Xcellor

I have been able to download about 4 gigs in the last couple of nights with o2. This is something that would have been IMPOSSIBLE with Three.

I had one occasion where it was going very slow so I disconnected and reconnected and then it was back to being zippy again.

Highly recommend it. Not had to phone o2 at all since purchasing it. With Three I was on the phone every other evening paid over 15 euros phoning that stupid 083 number...

watty

galactus wrote: »

Thanks but that's a bit incomprehensible so I read this instead.

The speeds quoted on that are way too fast!

Mint Sauce

have had a few problems with o2 in the couple of weeks, have connection for a few hours, some times only a few minutes, even though the apllication shows 4 to 5 bars on umts or hsdpa, been with them since mid sept and has been fine til now

been on to customer services a few times who first told me a tech support agent would be in touch, then one told me work was to be done on mast, then was in shop who rang and was told there was an issue in the sligo area

now when i have a connection, very happy with it, but when keeps going off can get very frustating,

anyone else experiencing similar issues, and any sugestions, or heard anything in relation to this, have gone through my laptop settings my self and with the assistant in the shop, no issues there

Our man in Havana

I am using o2 on EDGE ( I can occasionally pick up stray 3g from somewhere but sadly not enough to connect) and I get good speeds most of the time 260kbps is the max I have gotten but I have to say the speed is very stable and is constant even during the evenings. I have noticed that o2 cut you off after 12 hours connected. Is this their policy?

Also how much do they charge for sending SMS from the modem?

richardw001

Is that 260Kbps upload or download ?
- sounds like o2 are the only crew putting any serious work into their network at the moment - not just with the commitment to EDGE - but with 3G
- Regarding the other fish in the pond
I'm a three voice customer - given the data coverage and the customer service I have experienced - I would'nt be inclined to go with them as an option

I have a voda usb modem for the past year - which is fairly reliable - but for example I did a speed test (the black knight ISP one) yesterday in a 3G area and a 2G area - here are the results:

Vodafone:

3G:
- and got
approx 346 Kbps download
58 Kbps upload

2G (GPRS)
- 14 Kbps download
17.2 Kpbs upload

Going to trial an o2 one over the next week or so - can you tell me whats the lowest EDGE data rate that you have experienced ?

Our man in Havana

260kbps download, upload is about 40 to 50 kbps on EDGE. With me I have never experienced speeds less than 150kbps.

I used to be with 3 and o2 on EDGE is beating them hands down.

Sponge Bob

richardw001 wrote: »

Vodafone:

3G:
- and got
approx 346 Kbps download
58 Kbps upload

Going to trial an o2 one over the next week or so - can you tell me whats the lowest EDGE data rate that you have experienced ?

You probably have a huawei 618 which cannot go any faster than 384k , Voda may upgrade you for FREE to keep you but first read this thread

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054990043

Lest anyone think I am too hard on three

rebel.ranter

O2 are in the middle of swapping out every single piece of hardware on their network at present, this will allow a complete EDGE network to be in place. The fact that you saw EDGE on your phone means your area has more than likely been swapped but there are probably some final parameter adjustments that have to be made before EDGE will be enabled properly.

As for the price of texting from modem:
Other call charges Charge Unit
Text to O2 11c Per text
Texts to other Irish mobile networks 13c Per text
Texts to International numbers 25c Per text

Sponge Bob

I'd love to know when that swapout will finish becuase I know some country people who are planning their christmas shopping already

Our man in Havana

rebel.ranter wrote: »

O2 are in the middle of swapping out every single piece of hardware on their network at present, this will allow a complete EDGE network to be in place. The fact that you saw EDGE on your phone means your area has more than likely been swapped but there are probably some final parameter adjustments that have to be made before EDGE will be enabled properly.

As for the price of texting from modem:
Other call charges Charge Unit
Text to O2 11c Per text
Texts to other Irish mobile networks 13c Per text
Texts to International numbers 25c Per text

Have they any plans to extend HSDPA to all areas?

rebel.ranter

I would not rule out the possibility of O2 providing 3G for some people for Christmas either, subscribe to the text alerts for your area to get up to date information as to when new 3G sites will be coming on in your area.

O2 Network Text Alerts

I cannot find where the other network offer this type of text update service. Vodafone used to do it.

Our man in Havana

I take it you are an o2 employee?

In my area my phone is indicating a 3g signal from o2 but the modem is having none of it, it sees the 3g but won't connect. Am I to far away from the mast?

I get 5 bars on EDGE.

Sponge Bob

Country people with 14k dialup will be perfectly happy with EDGE only ....hence my question , some of them might get eventually LTE when its decided what LTE is

Our man in Havana

I am a happy Country EDGE user.

rebel.ranter

I suppose while EDGE is not broadband (some would say HSDPA isn't either) it does give people some sort of decent connectivity for web browsing & email.

Sponge Bob

Remember that many of these people are going from 14k Flat Rate Anytime Dialup for €30 a month to say 200k for €30 a month with EDGE , its a revelation !

And they can chuck the landline too . After all this is what the highest line rental in the whole World often gets you in rural Ireland .



They would not know what hit them with an oul bit of 3G speeds every now and then.

watty

In reality Edge and HSDPA are both somewhere between dialup / basic ISDN (Narrowband, up to 128k) and DSL/Cable/Metro/fibre (Real Broadband)

Maybe we should have a new OECD approved category for certain "broadband in a box" and Mobile Internet?

"Interband", "MiddleBand" but it has to SOUND better than Broadband or else the operators would not use it in marketing without a strong Consumer orientated Agency with big fines and sharp fangs.

rebel.ranter

I think the ship has sailed on this one. It's not going to be changed now.

Even more ridiculous is the notion that a service that is billed based on connected time is classed as broadband!

People should be made aware of the differences in capabilities of the technologies in some way alright.
Perhaps a Suitability Guide should be produced as an addition to the website http://www.callcosts.ie
There is a usage details field on the broadband section of the webiste but it only asks what speed you desire. I think that most of Joe Public have no idea what speed they need or what latency is requred to do what they want to do. They just want it to work.

In light of that I think it would be far more beneficial if questions like is it to be used for:

- web browsing & email
- gaming
- newsgroups
- video streaming
- mobility
- VOIP

When you buy a handset you have an option list to tailor the list of handsets that suit your needs.
Then at least people's expectations would be managed.

watty

That doesn't work either. Iv'e done all those on dialup. Except Mobility.

We just need to actually apply the existing minimum standard (the OECD's) for Broadband.

pred racer

I have to say Im perfectly happy with my o2 broadband, normal speeds are 800K to 1.8 M. I very rarely get a hsdpa signal, normally 1 bar of utms which works fine.
I was one of the 14k masses up until I got this, so very happy. (sometimes 9k I could have a cup of tea while waiting for an email to load.)
I also managed to get rid of my phone line which I only used for de interweb.
My mobile is on meteor, but ill probably go back to o2 when my contract is up to avail of the lower BB price for o2 customers.

jor el

Bond-007 wrote: »

Also how much do they charge for sending SMS from the modem?

Prices here

Text to O2 11c Per text
Texts to other Irish mobile networks 13c Per text
Texts to International numbers 25c Per text
Picture Messages 25c Per picture
Long Text 20c is less than 3kb, 25c is larger Per text

Since you're online, you can use the 250 free web-texts a month though. Texts come through to the control panel and you can reply in the web browser.

Our man in Havana

Thanks for that. Can you use the modem at all outside of the republic?

rebel.ranter

It goes back to a per Mb charge, look at the roaming section of website e.g. Spain:

http://www.o2online.ie/wps/wcm/connect/O2/Home/Personal/Services/Travelling+Abroad/Tariff+Information/Spain/

I'd leave it at home!

Our man in Havana

At those prices too right! €8.16 per mb, sweet jesus! :eek:

Mint Sauce

even after my troubleed week with o2, still cant fault them, usally on HSDPA when using in my usual location, currently away for weekend and is usally on EDGE most of the time, as not in 3G area, and this is the great part, still get faster speeds on o2 EDGE, than i got with THREE on HSDPA

<thumbs up o2>

richardw001

I wonder can you port those little usb modems from Voda and three to O2 - i.e. can you get them sim unlocked the same way as with phones ?

Burr

Seeing as I kicked off this thread, I thought I would give a follow up.

The day after I noticed one of the the occasional drops in speed, everything is back to normal. 1 to 2 mb off peak, dropping to as low as half a meg at the worst (with an odd bad 2 minutes)

GPRS has improved dramatically since my original post. I have also had the oppurtunity to use edge in rural east Galway last weekend, and I was really impressed..Pings obviously a bit slow, but steady 200kb+ at all times. If I had edge at my location over the years, I would never have had to bitch about lack of broadband. These kinds of speed are just grand for browsing etc. Downloaded MP3s etc and not a bother...

In my experience Overall O2 is a good chunk better than Vodafone, albit paying a few quid more. By the way a neighbour is on 3 currently and is pretty happy with it. I have tried it a few peak times, and found speeds similar to O2 edge. He is delighted with it at the money, as he had Vodafone at 30 Euro for GPRS only....so has reduced his cost and tirpled + his speed.

Again another thumbs up for O2..

richardw001

Burr wrote: »

Seeing as I kicked off this thread, I thought I would give a follow up.

The day after I noticed one of the the occasional drops in speed, everything is back to normal. 1 to 2 mb off peak, dropping to as low as half a meg at the worst (with an odd bad 2 minutes)

GPRS has improved dramatically since my original post. I have also had the oppurtunity to use edge in rural east Galway last weekend, and I was really impressed..Pings obviously a bit slow, but steady 200kb+ at all times. If I had edge at my location over the years, I would never have had to bitch about lack of broadband. These kinds of speed are just grand for browsing etc. Downloaded MP3s etc and not a bother...

In my experience Overall O2 is a good chunk better than Vodafone, albit paying a few quid more. By the way a neighbour is on 3 currently and is pretty happy with it. I have tried it a few peak times, and found speeds similar to O2 edge. He is delighted with it at the money, as he had Vodafone at 30 Euro for GPRS only....so has reduced his cost and tirpled + his speed.

Again another thumbs up for O2..

Been using the o2 modem for the past few - days - getting 3-4 bars of EDGE coverage - peculiar though as the data rate appears to be very bursty - i.e. I see max data rate 56ish kbps up 250ish kbps down - however - the rates using the irish isp test show it as 14kbps up 100kbps up - it was alot worse when I was using the internet apn rather than the wap one - that said its better than the vodaphone gprs connection - can I ask what your settings are - to get 200 kbps ?

Our man in Havana

I regularly get excess of 220 kbps using the out of the box settings on EDGE.

jor el

richardw001 wrote: »

I wonder can you port those little usb modems from Voda and three to O2 - i.e. can you get them sim unlocked the same way as with phones ?

Seems like it is possible, but they don't make it easy. Don't know how helpful 3 or Vodafone Ireland will be in getting you the unlock code and software.

richardw001

- and thats using the irish isp speed test - or something similar - ?
I think you might be right then - in terms of the basestation config (- as you said previously) - everyone else seems to be consistently getting 200 kpbs except for me.

Have you tried using a vpn over it ?

Burr

I would like to refresh my review posted last year. Since Christmas, performance of O2 HSDPA at peak times has degraded to the point that it is now generally significantly slower than my dial up speed. Below represent 9.30 to 10PM tonight. Note the uploads are significantly faster than the downloads !.

Down Up
37.8 146 kbs
42.0 256 kbs
16 87 kbs
59.3 165 kbs
39 timed out
37.2 61 kbs

Typical average peak pings are 175ms with 1-2% lost packets, mostly ranging 120 to 350 ms.

Off peak speeds are still a very respectable 1Mb I only phoned helpdesk last week (mails were ignored), and the customer service response was good, with an immediate admission that there was some kind of problem. I was also offered an 50% discount for three months. This makes me very worried !. A ticket has been opened, and base station is to be "examined". I would prefer to pay full, and have a good service. My neighbours Vodafone and even Three are currently significantly better.

This review is highly subjective, only reflecting one user, and one base station....I will keep you updated.

Burr wrote: »

I just want to share my experiences of O2 E220 3G/HSDPA broadband .

I am connected in a rural area, near to a DSL enabled town, and have generally had a very positive experience with O2 performance.

Away from peak times, I generally have typical download speeds of of 1.2 to 2.2 MB. Between 6PM and 11.30PM my typical download speeds are 800kB to 1.3MB. These are short term speeds, up to 10 seconds, reducing to about 50% after 10 seconds. Pings range 120 to 350 (HEANET)

Every now and then though, I have really poor speeds particularily at peak times. - This lasts for a few days typically, followed by a dramatic improvement.

I have seen Edge appear here last week in Co. Kilkenny, but disappear again. Edge was displayed, but only GPRS speeds were available. So as yet I have no experienced edge.

GPRS performance is very poor, not even close to 50+kb, and is a lot slower that 25k-ish landline.

Signal strength is not to important, with 2 bars being as good as is required. 1 bar will allow 1MB with ease (If you want greater rsignal resolution, google for "E620 tool" which works excellently). Keep in mind that the bars are not in realtime- probably refreshed every 15 seconds ?

In my experience, customer service does not answer or acknowledge emails at all.

I have had loaners of vodafone and 3 at this location. O2 is significantly better than Vodafone, and cannot be compared at all with 3s poor performance. Having said that, I have two friends reporting significant improvements on 3 in the last few days. Vodafone GPRS is also poor.

Never any problems accessing any sites.

I currently am encountering problems with O2 for two days now, with peak time speeds between 200 and 350 kB. Have any other O2 customers had any issues on 22nd-23rd October ?

Just before I sign off, I have run speedtest.ie at 11.50 to 11.55 PM. Results below.

down Up
990 269
753 156
1370 95

Thanks
Burr