ADSL 4 Mbps versus HSDPA

The latest broadband survey requested broadband subscribers to do international and local speed tests, giving a basic idea of the actual performance of these services.

While broadband providers generally advertise the theoretical maximum downlink speed of the service it is far removed from the average throughput users can expect.

ADSL versus HSDPA Download Speeds

While the current maximum download speed on Telkom’s ADSL service is 4 Mbps and with Vodacom and MTN’s HSDPA offerings 1.8 Mbps, the international throughput on the respective services paint a very different picture.

The last mile access speed seems to play less of a role than adequate international bandwidth provisioning. And with the high price of international bandwidth some providers seem to neglect this component of provisioning of a broadband offering.

The average international download speed for Telkom’s ADSL 4 Mbps service was 393 Kbps – around 9.5% of the advertised speed.

The results for Vodacom and MTN’s were somewhat more encouraging. According to user feedback and official testing in the broadband survey MTN’s HSDPA service produced an average download speed of 585 Kbps while Vodacom’s speed was 714 Kbps.

While it may surprise some observers that both MTN and Vodacom’s services beat Telkom’s ADSL offering regarding international download speed it is not altogether unexpected.

It is well known that both MTN and Vodacom provision adequate international bandwidth to ensure high quality service while Telkom has often come under fire for the poor international performance for their ADSL offerings.

When it comes to local speeds the situation however looks very different.

Here Telkom’s ADSL 4 Mbps service produced an average speed of 2579 Kbps, far superior to Vodacom’s 859 Kbps and MTN’s 685 Kbps.

Upload speeds

In the upload department ADSL reigns supreme.

Telkom’s ADSL 4 Mbps service produced an international upload speed of 252 Kbps and a local upload speed of 301 Kbps.

Vodacom was however not too far behind with an international upload speed of 230 Kbps and a local upload speed of 238 Kbps.

MTN however limits its HSDPA upload speeds to 64 Kbps. Its international average upload speed of 59 Kbps and local uplink speed of 57 Kbps may frustrate some users.

In a head to head contest involving all components of a broadband service – including download speed, upload speed, latency, stability and reliability – ADSL will still come out tops.

Vodacom and MTN are however doing an impressive job to outperform Telkom’s flagship fixed line broadband product in some aspects of the service considering the maturity and general superiority of the ADSL technology.

Comments