Mobile Broadband Deterioration

conaire1

Has anybody else noticed that mobile braodband in the Galway area is getting worse?
I live five miles outside the city and noticed a big temporary drop in download speed during the Volvo Ocean Race stopover and again during Galway Races. Now there has been a deep decline in download speed ever since NUIG and GMIT reopened.
To me this suggests congestion in the system. Or to look at it another way, the mobile broadband companies are taking on more customers without expanding the capacity to service them.

I'm with Three and mine has actually increased in speed significantly in the last 6 months.

Maybe change provider?

Madame Razz

rarnes1 wrote: »

I'm with Three and mine has actually increased in speed significantly in the last 6 months.

Agreed. I'm with Three aswell and haven't experienced any difficulties anywhere in Galway city/county; in fact as Rarnes said I think it has improved:)

EuskalHerria

I have the 02 mobile broadband, in the evenings from about 6-10 it is slow enough, struggle to load pages at times. Anytime before or after then it is grand and this weekend it has been consistantly fast. Think it is a congestion of the system as it is the main times most people go on.

Sponge Bob

eircom just launched theirs in GALWAY...it will be pretty empty if you can in fact get it = fast . O2 was heavily sold to students in Galway in the past 2 months , not so Voda and 3 .

Fozzie Bear

Madame Razz wrote: »

Agreed. I'm with Three aswell and haven't experienced any difficulties anywhere in Galway city/county; in fact as Rarnes said I think it has improved:)

Where in Gods name are ye based? I'm in the Oranmore area and have three also. It is focking pain-full-y slow this weekend. I am ripping my hair out in frustration with the bastard thing. This evening it is improved mildly but still sh1te. I'd like to force feed the bloody laptop to Mr Three and his cretinous fellow service providers.

yourmano

On O2, was going to change to 3. In the city. Any opinions?

swe_fi

Fozzie Bear>>>I only had O2 in oranmore but that was awfully slow most of the time. Think Oranmore is the problem depending on area / room even from my experience. I assume know about UMTS/3G vs GPRS. There is a setting in the o2 (again, dont know about 3) connection program where you can "force" only 3G connection, that helped a bit for me. Oranmore is on the O2 network an "edge" area (=bad).

Lastly, I know this sounds proper mentalist but a guy i know put his dongle in front of a satellite dish pointed towards the 3G mast and that quadrupled the speed.

Sponge Bob

Quadrupled from what , 20k to 80k maybe ???

Mobile will always be pretty rubbishy unless a lot more cells are deployed in Galway and that will require more spectrum . MMDS TV has the main chunk of this spectrum until 2014 .

Only those living near a mast will get a reasonable service in the evenings ...those living less than half a mile from the mast mostly and a bit more in rural areas with low population .

That is because 3g dongles technically 'shout' at the same time in a cell and those who shout loudest get the best service because they are close to the mast . A satellite dish on the far side of the dongle and pointing towards the mast would certainly help the shouting .

Devices such as repeaters which electronically amplify the shouting will also help .

Eventually everybody will do it and you are back at square one ....which is more masts which requires more spectrum

Most people living in the flat terrain 'mast hostile ' east of Galway should be working out how to fibre their homes and use the new ducts along the new motorway to get their local fibre connected to the city where they can pick up proper broadband .

Mobile will never be a patch on copper and fibre .....although Irish copper is too expensive in the form of line rental and copper only really stonks on short runs of 3km or less .

Less whining and more digging and fibring is the long term solution

conaire1

My Three signal from the Abbeyknockmoy cell went downhill during the freeze. OK, but now I find that if I spend a minute reading a webpage, the signal strength declines sharply when I click on a new webpage. It's as though the cell can reduce the signal if the user is idle even for a minute.
Then I have to go through the whole process of disconnecting and reconnecting. Hardly the 'always on' service I'm paying for. The Regulator is weak and won't do anything.
Anybody else had this problem?
Pardon me while I reconnect before sending this message.

hoody

yourmano wrote: »

On O2, was going to change to 3. In the city. Any opinions?

Was with 3 for a year and it was one of the worst experiences I've ever had of using a service or product. Steer clear. I found the speeds slow to the point of unusable most of the time (more than a half hour to load a 3 minute video on youtube for example).

Have since moved onto another provider and its been a revelation. 3 were shocking. Check out this thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055115306
and its 7,225 replies before you go near 3.

yermanoffthetv

Was on 3 which ranged from adequate at best to completely unusable. Gave up on mobile "broadband" completely after that never went back from cable. Probably wont see wimax in Galway for another few centuries but would be a nice alternative if it ever does come.

LowOdour

yermanoffthetv wrote: »

Probably wont see wimax in Galway for another few centuries but would be a nice alternative if it ever does come.

Not according to these guys http://www.lightnet.ie/

spender.j

I'm with Vodafone and have rarely had problems except during bad weather and sundays (specifically). I was living in Tirellan and Castlelawn but have just moved up to Ballybane, anyone tell me if they are experiencing bad connection in this area as it has been on GPRS roaming since I moved! still quite fast but not 3G...

yermanoffthetv

LowOdour wrote: »

Not according to these guys http://www.lightnet.ie/

Hmm interesting. a little on the expensive side but no doubt better than mobile bb. Worth keeping an eye out for. It appears that Imagine are upgrading a transmitter to wimax near Carnmore also. Their prices look pretty reasonable too 7mb + phone for €35pm(eircoms is €66) or on its own for €15pm:eek: Sounds nearly too good. I wont believe it till I see a speed test tho.

conaire1

Sponge Bob
You wrote:

"Mobile will always be pretty rubbishy unless a lot more cells are deployed in Galway and that will require more spectrum . MMDS TV has the main chunk of this spectrum until 2014" .

Does that mean we won't get wimax in Galway until 2014?

dnme

conaire1 wrote: »

Sponge Bob
You wrote:

"Mobile will always be pretty rubbishy unless a lot more cells are deployed in Galway and that will require more spectrum . MMDS TV has the main chunk of this spectrum until 2014" .

Does that mean we won't get wimax in Galway until 2014?

In the past week, O2 has gone really bad out near Athenry. Very noticable, disconnects all night and speed averaging about 50kbps, used to get over 100

Sponge Bob

conaire1 wrote: »

Does that mean we won't get wimax in Galway until 2014?

Means we won't get meaningful LTE deployments until then. Wimax uses different spectrum to LTE. There is no Wimax in Galway City right now.

Stevo11

LowOdour wrote: »

Not according to these guys http://www.lightnet.ie/

Whoah.. $$$
Wireless Digiweb in Oran works well, 8Mb <40e

Sponge Bob

Digiweb Metro and Irish Broadband Breeze are FIXED Wireless Broadband not MOBILE.

Of course they work properly. They use external aerials not some cheap plastic dongle.

If you cannot get Cable you should consider them instead.

Utopia Parkway

LowOdour wrote: »

Not according to these guys http://www.lightnet.ie/

We actually use these guys for business because the mobile broadband coverage where we are is very mixed. Bit on the expensive side alright especially if you are using multiple machines but definitely quicker than any mobile broadband I've used.