View Full Version : Are our 3G providers restricting upload speeds?
When my 3G is working real bad I often see bad upload speeds & this is looking at both CellC + 8ta, so differant towers,also with different modems.
If a tower is overloaded i would expect to see DL speed slow but often its the upload speed that is ridiculously low.
Whats the cause of this?
Are they regulating upload speed to discourage VoIP/Skype or something?
If a tower is overloaded i would assume more people are downloading than uploading so why when the throughput is slow do we not see the upload speed still high vrs the download speed??
example as of right now
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=12288&d=1320081934
SteveO
31-10-2011, 08:30 PM
Most of the resources for the tower is used for DL, but these resources are shared by UL and DL, so a loaded tower will effect both UL and DL
Most of the resources for the tower is used for DL, but these resources are shared by UL and DL, so a loaded tower will effect both UL and DL
I disagree with you for the simple reason that we have transmit channels and receive channels.
At any given time the receive channels are more used rather than the transmit channels.
eg. 10 people in a given area are using a tower for internet.
10 requests are sent to the network for info from the internet.
A request uses very little resources.
However once the request is met the receive channels go to work downloading the information you need.
Thus the downloading becomes slow.
The upload speed should always be very fast.
The conclusion is that upload speeds in South Africa are definitely regulated.
Never mind what the networks tell you.
DXL - Team
I'm following along.... i'm all ears......
sajunky
31-10-2011, 11:15 PM
Most of the resources for the tower is used for DL, but these resources are shared by UL and DL, so a loaded tower will effect both UL and DL
I don't disagree. However other factors can affect download/upload relation. By example upload channel is limited to lower level modulation, so in the situation when download channels use QAM-64 modulation and signal is perfectly clean, it will be bigger difference in speed, as allocated download channels are used more efficient.
shovenose
02-11-2011, 12:33 AM
With certain type of connections like UDP all the users in a cell share the bandwidth. So if one guy is downloading it will reduce your bandwidth as well. Normally your device is limited by the amount it can upload and the connection. For better upload speed Huspa would be better than Hspda
morkhans
02-11-2011, 10:59 AM
I don't disagree. However other factors can affect download/upload relation. By example upload channel is limited to lower level modulation, so in the situation when download channels use QAM-64 modulation and signal is perfectly clean, it will be bigger difference in speed, as allocated download channels are used more efficient.
I think this is closer to what's going on. I had a chat to a radio engineer once and they said in areas with heavy load they have the ability to reduce the spectrum for upload so they can increase the download (which is what most clients are doing).
Which in turn creates horrid latency when the UL is strangled below 0.5Mbps
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=12302&d=1320232344
Remembering the speedtest is off local - once you go to international its lag-fest:sick:
sajunky
02-11-2011, 01:39 PM
I think this is closer to what's going on. I had a chat to a radio engineer once and they said in areas with heavy load they have the ability to reduce the spectrum for upload so they can increase the download (which is what most clients are doing).
There is cell breathing for individual users, so no wonder the same policy applies to the system based allocation of upload channels (as they are slower - wasting of resources).
SteveO
02-11-2011, 02:06 PM
I disagree with you for the simple reason that we have transmit channels and receive channels.
At any given time the receive channels are more used rather than the transmit channels.
eg. 10 people in a given area are using a tower for internet.
10 requests are sent to the network for info from the internet.
A request uses very little resources.
However once the request is met the receive channels go to work downloading the information you need.
Thus the downloading becomes slow.
The upload speed should always be very fast.
The conclusion is that upload speeds in South Africa are definitely regulated.
Never mind what the networks tell you.
DXL - Team
DXL, where are you getting your info from?
With all due respect, I work in the RAN department for one of the biggest telecoms vendors, 3G, HSPA+ and LTE are my bread and butter.
That said, your vendor or network could work differently, but from my side this is how it works, and that comment was based on HSPA.
Khanya
02-11-2011, 02:17 PM
Yes. Never got more than 500Kbps upload. The best I get on EU servers is 280ms, and that's at 00:00.
http://i39.tinypic.com/2pr92jp.png
If one has a tower that is showing Negotiated QoS of
downlink: 21000
uplink: 8640
In a perfect world scenario with the right modem is that the DL/UL ratio one should expect to see?
eg: if you had DL speed of 10.5Mbps you "should" be seeing UL of +/- 4.3Mbps?
I understand what was said before that if the tower is busy more resources transfer to the download side thereby affecting the upload side
What about this one then where it seems its a fairly free tower but that DL/UL ratio is nothing close to 21:8 or does the QoS value have nothing to do with it?
Here its more like 21:2
http://mybroadband.co.za/vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=12322&d=1320330405
HavocXphere
03-11-2011, 05:05 PM
I very much doubt they are intentionally restricting upload. Its not like someone is gonna host P2P on 3G with those stupid prices.
I *vaguely* recall some business about the hardware itself also affecting this. i.e. The the speed difference one sees between a teethered cheap 3G phone & a 3G stick even if both rated for the same speed. Something about it having fewer channels, whatever that means.
Last time I did a speed test on HSDPA/3g the upload was skyhigh.
Ivanr
03-11-2011, 05:31 PM
I have always had good U/L speeds in Northern Suburbs CT on Vodacom.
Test 2011-11-03 @ 17h30 for Local - Ping 94ms D/L 4.41 U/L 2.93
I am happy with this.
shovenose
03-11-2011, 09:38 PM
Yes. Never got more than 500Kbps upload. The best I get on EU servers is 280ms, and that's at 00:00.
http://i39.tinypic.com/2pr92jp.png
no QOS or RTT results?
QOS should be 80 percent at least.
Here's a explanation into speed testing.
http://www.auditmypc.com/internet-speed-test.asp
I always do my testing with something I download really. Because a speedtest server doesn't tell me my real throughput. You select a server sometimes in your own network which means youll got good results but it tells you nothing about how it will go when download something from a server euRope that's on a completely different network.
limnos
14-11-2011, 10:05 PM
Please look how terrible my upload speed tests are with Vodacom:
http://www.speedtest.net/result/1592056726.png