3G HSDPA 3.6 Service Available?

S

Spartaniz

Expert Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2008
Messages
1,259
Reaction score
14
Location
Johannesburg
after playing around on vodacom4me's website, i've came across "Value Added Services - Available" and on that list is the 3G HSDPA services for R49 more. whats this services for.... i mean i do i have a Vodacom 3G contract, why wouldnt this services be activated??? is it not needed for better download and upload speeds? :confused::confused::confused:
 
Vodacom throttles our download speed much like Iburst would when you're capped. You need to PAY to download faster.
 
thanks for the fast reply..... so if i activate this services, my internet sownloads speeds will increase as well?
 
yep - at the moment we are limited to a 1.8Mbps downlink. For the 3.6 download speed, you need to pay the extra 49 bucks. Also, I could stand corrected but not all towers support these speeds at the moment (needs to be confirmed by someone who actually knows :) ) so you might not be able to access those speeds anyway.

By the way, if you use you Vodacom sim in a phone, simply dial *111#, select the "3G service" option and then follow instructions from there.
 
mmmmm.... do you guys think its for the extra R49?????? ...that is if the towers support these speeds....
 
Spartaniz said:
sorry... my internet DOWNLOAD speeds will increase?:o
Click to expand...

err.....made absolutely no difference really on my side

Rapidshare downloads at 50kb/s here, with 3.6 Activated (activated it to check a second time)
i'm getting 230+ kb/s on our "measly" 386 work line divided by 5 people!

3.6mb/s is a pipedream. it's just not worth it.
 
Keeper said:
err.....made absolutely no difference really on my side

Rapidshare downloads at 50kb/s here, with 3.6 Activated (activated it to check a second time)
i'm getting 230+ kb/s on our "measly" 386 work line divided by 5 people!

3.6mb/s is a pipedream. it's just not worth it.
Click to expand...

whats the speedtest results on a 3.6 connection??
 
Spartaniz said:
whats the speedtest results on a 3.6 connection??
Click to expand...

you could get just above 1.8

say about 2.1

but other than the speedtests, you wouldn't even know if it's activated or not.

try it maybe you're lucky - but i personally wouldn't waste R50 like that...

If I had a choice between 3.6, or seeing the look on my friends faces when I set a R50 note on fire, i'd take option B.
 
Keeper said:
err.....made absolutely no difference really on my side

Rapidshare downloads at 50kb/s here, with 3.6 Activated (activated it to check a second time)
i'm getting 230+ kb/s on our "measly" 386 work line divided by 5 people!

3.6mb/s is a pipedream. it's just not worth it.
Click to expand...


Possible your hardware or as I mentioned above, the tower you are connecting through doesn't support the increase speeds.

What would be helpful to check whether 3.6 actually works (have heard many a good response on the 3.6 service, but don't doubt your issues), would be to get at least 2 speed test results in at least two locations with 3.6 activated, and then deactivate it (wait a month as the service i still active for the remainder of the month in which you deactivate it) and do it again. This way there are multiple tests on multiple towers with and without the service. If the results are the same then well, guess its your hardware. Else , ould be the tower.

For a quicker option, call VC or ask V3G for assistance with the 3.6 service issues. He usually gets things sorted pretty quick.
 
wishblade said:
Possible your hardware or as I mentioned above, the tower you are connecting through doesn't support the increase speeds.

What would be helpful to check whether 3.6 actually works (have heard many a good response on the 3.6 service, but don't doubt your issues), would be to get at least 2 speed test results in at least two locations with 3.6 activated, and then deactivate it (wait a month as the service i still active for the remainder of the month in which you deactivate it) and do it again. This way there are multiple tests on multiple towers with and without the service. If the results are the same then well, guess its your hardware. Else , ould be the tower.

For a quicker option, call VC or ask V3G for assistance with the 3.6 service issues. He usually gets things sorted pretty quick.
Click to expand...


so your saying he should be able to get faster download speeds on 3.6?
 
whats up with the diffrent vodacom APN's? i've read on a few posts something about internetvpn and unrestricted....
 
All Vodacom towers are on 3.6 but to get 3.6 you obviously must also have a 3.6 capable device. Like an E220 or E272.

Then there might be a good chance that the back-haul is not sufficient to service multiple people on 3.6.

Best bet is to run a few speed tests to http://speed.vodacom.co.za over a few days. If you see 1.8Mb/s downlink a lot, then there probably is enough capacity to serve more than 1.8. I got 3.2 on a tower earlier today.

No difference in the speeds of the various APN's. The difference is more to do if you want to host or not.
 
I have also had 3 mbps. Keeper is a very negative guy, so obviously nothing works for him. I activated 3.6 and I am seeing a difference. I am in Potchefstroom at the moment and still getting 2.5 or more. It is worth it in my case.
 
I had the 3.6Mb activation done on my sim card with a HSUPA (E272) modem i got from Gogga Connect and it does perform alot faster, but i am more inpressed with the upload speed, sending emails and uploading files to websites is so fast now :-)
So i still say its worth the R49, as what can one actually now days do with 50 Bucks ?
These are my speed results i took now at 9:30am in Pretoria, but will be doing some speed tests in diffrent areas and will let you guys know.
Download Speed: 1866 kbps (233.3 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 1181 kbps (147.6 KB/sec transfer rate)
 
mmmm i also heard abouy the 7.2mbps.... runnning speedtests on my current 3G on speedtest a get around 1400kbps download and upload is alot slower.... i do use hamachi alot... playing games with friends, our latency is very good in certain games compared to online servers. for example, if i play left 4 dead through steam it will lag, not to bad, but it does.... over hamachi, if i host, everyone plays fine without lag... so in this case will it improve my hamachi game hosting a bit more if i activate 3.6????
 
Pr1$m said:
7.2Mbps is available. Just not advertised?

Just what i heard mmmmm

Can't wait for Telkom 3G to hit CT.
Click to expand...

i'm just wondering, whats the use of these 7.2mbps capable modems if theres no service that support these speeds???? correct me if im wrong...
 
Spartaniz said:
i'm just wondering, whats the use of these 7.2mbps capable modems if theres no service that support these speeds???? correct me if im wrong...
Click to expand...

All the 3G networks (VC, MTN and Telkom) have got networks that are 7.2 capable.

In the case of Telkom and MTN they claim to have enabled it on all their towers but tests by people on this forum seems to indicated (for MTN at least) that it's not available on all towers. Rather just a few here and there.

Telkom might have it on all 3 their towers, not sure. Of course they don't battle to get backhaul....

Vodacom's policy on this is not to enable 7.2 on all towers until such time that the backhaul is in place to at least give some level of throughput that seems relevant to the promised speed. But we're dependent on Telkom to supply this and they are many months (in some cases, years) behind in delivering.

So, if we can get the backhaul, we'll flick the switch.

We *might* break our own policy and enable it on select towers. Will see.

My own view is to rather get all towers on "proper" 3.6 levels before beginning to mess around with 7.2.
 
My best speeds yet (taken at 13:45 on 19 Feb), but generally the speeds are all over the place, though seldom lower than 1800:

Last Result:

Download Speed: 2993 kbps (374.1 KB/sec transfer rate)
Upload Speed: 1161 kbps (145.1 KB/sec transfer rate)

Not sure if it's worth the R49 as I seldom notice any improvements over 1.8 when accessing or downloading from international sites. :rolleyes:

The improved (free!) upload speed has made a huge difference! :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X