First post in 3G forum: 3G Speed?

LandyMan

LandyMan

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Hi all,

This is my first post here, after strolling over from the iBurst section :eek:
So, I am reasoning that this question has been answered here before, and any pointer to that discussion will be much appreciated.

What speeds can one expect through Vodacom 3G?

Thanks a Mill
 
*Embarrassed cough* don't think I've put the speeds in the FAQ yet.

Theoretical max is 384Kb/s down and 64Kb/s in the uplink, measured at the datalink layer.

This equates to 48KB/s, I mostly get about 32~35KB/s, measured at the application layer, for example when doing a FTP.

Throughput does vary according to loading on the international links and how close to an upgrade you measure.

When we still had the compression on, I'd often see speeds of 120% max!
 
Now this is customer service

vodacom3g said:
*Embarrassed cough* don't think I've put the speeds in the FAQ yet.
Click to expand...

Thanks v3g, much appreciated
 
I am currently cruising at about 40kbytes/s at 2 bars, downloading a Star Wars cartoon from their site. Had one crash today and I have learnt not to fiddle with the antenna while connected :-)

VMS
 
I also get about 40Kbps, although I have seen it burst to 46 -48Kbps late at night, especially when doing local FTP downloads or email synchs. When browsing the net normally, using Firefox and enabling multithreading makes opening web pages almost instantaneous. Much better than ADSL or iBurst. At the moment the service isnt shaped, so if you (can afford to) do P2P stuff, it also works really well! (Stuff like Skype etc).
Only catch is its expensive - but i am willing to pay more for a far superior service. To date, I havent used more than 500MBs on either network (Voda and MTN) and I am online almost the entire day. So as long as you dont need to download huge amounts of stuff, 1GB should be fine for the normal day to day stuff. I use it for synching my mails, browsing the web, logging into the SAP system at work, logging onto servers remotely via RDP, to give you an idea of my usage profile...
My 2c Worth :D
 
We're still trying to figure out what this marketing term "3G" actually mean and now already we see "Super 3G" and "4G" being bandied about.

The foreseeable future will be faster and faster HSDPA (2Mb/s this year, probably maxing out around 10Mb/s), but I suspect the technologies will eventually converge around a WiMax-like system with speeds aproaching 100Mb/s. Scary....
 
Wasn't there a 1Gigabits/s thing being developed in Japan or Korea - I vaguely remember a shocker like that popping up in the News Discussions forum a while back...
 
V3g what was that about the compression and getting 120%... just intrested
 
When we launched, we turned compression on by default and it really worked well, giving 500Kb/s downloads! However, some (a few) forumites caused such a stink we turned it off. A new, more manageable version is on it's way.

Watch this space...
 
The "Compression" would drop the quality of Jpeg images to save on data throughput. You basically got really crappy pictures. Unless I'm mistaken.
 
One of the features was jpeg compression, which was on by default. For normal web browsing this was fine as you could reload any pics at full resolution. In the first version, you could not turn it off.

For most people, the benefits of higher bandwidth outweighed the lower res pics but a few forumites had a major issue with this to the extend that we turned it off.

We're working on a new, more manageable version.
 
Highest speed reached

My 2c worth:

Average speeds 74 KBps. and when downloading files it varies but stays mostly above the 100KBps mark and reaches upto and over 300KBps. Infact i clocked just over the the 384Kbps mark, 392Kbps according to my DUMETER. Dont know if thats possible.....How does it go faster? or is DUMETER inaccurate?
My average file downloads show (according to WINDOWS): Transfer Rate: 21Kb = 21 x 8 = 168KBps
 
So this compression effect, did it actually improve speeds overall [in other words on all protocols] , or just JPEGS/browsing?

Or to put it more bluntly, the "technique" sounds more like "reducing amount of data transmitted" than "increasing speed" .....

(and i assume you still pay for the original "size" of JPEG even if you got a compressed version which are half the size? ...im sure that'll cause a stink :P)

Now if Vodacom can send me a 10MB file and package it so i'm only billed for 5MB [indirectly = double the speed and half the price] i can't imagine why i would complain :P
 
Last edited:
vodacom3g said:
The foreseeable future will be faster and faster HSDPA (2Mb/s this year, probably maxing out around 10Mb/s), but I suspect the technologies will eventually converge around a WiMax-like system with speeds aproaching 100Mb/s. Scary....
Click to expand...

Will we require new hardware again (downside of signing a 2yr contract) or would the new speeds be covered by a flash upgrade for the v3g card?
 
diabolus said:
So this compression effect, did it actually improve speeds overall [in other words on all protocols] , or just JPEGS/browsing?

Or to put it more bluntly, the "technique" sounds more like "reducing amount of data transmitted" than "increasing speed" .....

(and i assume you still pay for the original "size" of JPEG even if you got a compressed version which are half the size? ...im sure that'll cause a stink :P)

Now if Vodacom can send me a 10MB file and package it so i'm only billed for 5MB [indirectly = double the speed and half the price] i can't imagine why i would complain :P
Click to expand...

The compression happens (on all protocols) before you're data usage is measured, so if you get a 20% compression ratio you'll get 1.2Gb for your 1Gb contract.
 
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