Is H+ a form of 4G ?

Happy_Harry

I am a bit confused at the moment.

I have a Huawei E5372 mifi. Used to be locked to Vodafone and I used to be connected to 4G with 4G being the symbol in the display. 2-3 bars and speed 12Mbps down roughly.

I unlocked it to test other networks. Since then I have not seen a 4G indicator anymore. I get H+ on both Meteor or Vodafone (but at least on Meteor 4bars and slightly higher speeds than vF 4G)

My question is , is this H+ a downgraded version of 4G as I get H+ when I set the setting to 4G only and connect (manually) to a 4G signal ? If so, does 4G symbol mean LTE ? And I would only be able to get it from transmitters that are LTE enabled ? Strange thing is that only Vodafone has masts anywhere near me that show up on the comreg siteviewer with LTE... How am I able to connect to 4G signals from Meteor and 3 if there are none around (me) ?

ED E

H+ is basically 3G, usually at rates of 21Mb or 14Mb down.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolved_High_Speed_Packet_Access

Remember not all plans have 4G access, with meteor you need to be on billpay I believe. Also you need to be sure each providers 4G bands are supported by your device.

Happy_Harry

ED E wrote: »

H+ is basically 3G, usually at rates of 21Mb or 14Mb down.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolved_High_Speed_Packet_Access

Remember not all plans have 4G access, with meteor you need to be on billpay I believe. Also you need to be sure each providers 4G bands are supported by your device.

That's what I thought.. H+ being a superior 3G.. so how come the router software tells me connected to Meteor 4G and the setting is 4G only ?

Meteor's website says this about pre paid mobile broadband :
All our Mobile Broadband comes 4G enabled.

But, you may well be right. I'll take the modem with me tomorrow to the civilised world and see what happens there.

Any idea how to find out what bands meteor uses around here for 4G ? I presume google will tell me what bands my modem supports (I would be surprised that a modem like this, being very mainstream, would not support the band, but again, you may very well be right)

Thanks- I guess my next post may well be in the meteor forum

Happy_Harry

Actually .. You are right.. I remember now that the guy in CPW sold me a sim for €10 with 7.5Gb - that must be a phone SIM and prepaid they only have 3G enabled..

You think that 4 bars of H+ will also mean 4 bars of 4G as the modem says I am connected to a 4G network ? I guess only one way to find out

editorsean

One test you can try is see how fast your uplink is. The maximum uplink speed I've seen on HSPA and HSPA+ is just under 4Mbps, where as 4G often exceeds 10Mbps even at peak time.

The following were two tests run my phone Monday morning with the Meteor network - The left on 4G and the right with my phone set to 3G only:



When I was on the €10 simplicity plan, it would not let on 4G. However, their 3G performance was still pretty impressive such as the following from December:



As far as I'm aware of, the maximum speed HSPA can support is 14.4Mbps down, so if you get a downlink test result faster than that (e.g. early in the morning) and the upload speed doesn't exceed 4Mbps with a strong signal, then it's most likely connected over HSPA+.

Happy_Harry

The highest speeds I have seen so far is around 15/16 Mbps down and just below 4Mbps up, so I guess the statement made by Ed "H+ is basically 3G, usually at rates of 21Mb or 14Mb down" and the fact that I am pretty sure I am not on a 4G plan, would confirm I have a very good 3G signal.

Will pop in to Meteor today to get a 4G card and top up and see if that further improves matters as the signal is there and strong. Else I may just be happy with the 3G speeds I have now, it is better than the VF 4G I had and a lot cheaper.

Will also go to CPW for an IDMobile prepay card and test.

jay93

You shouldn't have any issues picking up 4G on other networks with it once you have a 4G sim and plan on Meteor. All sims on Three come 4G enabled and all plans have 4G too. Not sure about iD they should be the same though.

Your router should support all the LTE bands used in Ireland which as of now is band 3 and 20. There's no way to find out which specific one is used in your area unless you could check on an iPhone field test mode or the android equivalent. The phone would need to be on LTE to check which LTE band is been used in your area.

ACLFC7

jay93 wrote: »

The phone would need to be on LTE to check which LTE band is been used in your area.

How do you check what LTE band your phone is using?

Happy_Harry

jay93 wrote: »

You shouldn't have any issues picking up 4G on other networks with it once you have a 4G sim and plan on Meteor. All sims on Three come 4G enabled and all plans have 4G too. Not sure about iD they should be the same though.

Your router should support all the LTE bands used in Ireland which as of now is band 3 and 20. There's no way to find out which specific one is used in your area unless you could check on an iPhone field test mode or the android equivalent. The phone would need to be on LTE to check which LTE band is been used in your area.

Thanks for that. So the router supports 4G, my current SIM cards do (got a new meteor one and IDmobile). My modem gives a list of signals, I choose the 4G signal. It says Meteor 4G connected (or Three - 4G connected). But the indicator says still H+ at best and the highest speeds I have seen also indicate very good 3G speeds.

Something isn't right...I am starting to wonder if there is something wrong with my modem, or Meteor and Three simply call the H+ signal they send 4G rather than 3G (3.75 rounds to 4 ,right ? )

Ten Pin

Try the SIM in a 4G phone and see what it says, on Android check Settings>About phone>Status for network type.

Happy_Harry

Ten Pin wrote: »

Try the SIM in a 4G phone and see what it says, on Android check Settings>About phone>Status for network type.

I only had my wife's phone to try, but it was locked to O2 (didn't even take my Three SIM..). On her O2 SIM, I could only get a H+ signal. So I guess there may indeed be no 4g coverage (despite the tags the network carry)

Downloaded an app that shows where the mast is that you connect to on her phone and there are 2 masts she is connecting to, neither of them are on the comreg siteviewer map.. I know it is slow to update, but it clearly doesn't include all masts..

jay93

Here in the US they consider HSPA+ to be 4G on T-Mobile and AT&T. I hate that they call a form of 3G "4G" in Ireland it displays all kinds of 3G like it should. I think it was just a marketing thing here to call H+ "4G"

Happy_Harry

More confused now.. I accepted that I simply only had H+ in the house, decent speed and stable.. Now having mifi in town and display still says H+... but speeds : 30Mbps down and 15 up... That is not 3G !! Maybe the unlocking and changing firmware in the mifi caused the 4G display symbol to disappear...

editorsean

15Mbps is definitely in 4G territory.

I know the Speedtest App sometimes overshoots by a few Mbps especially on wireless and erratic links, but never seen it overshoot that much, considering HSPA+ maxes out about 4Mbps on the uplink.