MTN Speed Test Results

Different locations make for different results , there is no intention of flooding per say.

The fools at Century City can't tell me when they going to get more HSDPA 3.6 devices (usb) and I was awake so what the hell.

Nice when a server a good few thousand kays away tends to give you better speed response over a longer distance than one gets locally.The wonders of good to honest bandwidth and routing.

ginggs said:
Why are you flooding the 3.6Mbps speed test thread with results from a device that can only do 1.8Mbps?
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fismail said:
Different locations make for different results , there is no intention of flooding per say.
Click to expand...
My apologies, I didn't understand from your posts that it was where the test servers were located that was important.
fismail said:
The fools at Century City can't tell me when they going to get more HSDPA 3.6 devices (usb) and I was awake so what the hell.
Click to expand...
Hang in there for a 7.2 device. ;)
fismail said:
Nice when a server a good few thousand kays away tends to give you better speed response over a longer distance than one gets locally.The wonders of good to honest bandwidth and routing.
Click to expand...
Yup, I wonder if speedtest.net do quality control checks on the servers that are donated (in exchange for advertising)? What is the point of a server being donated if it doesn't have sufficient bandwidth to support the tests?

It still bugs me that the CT server appears slower than the JHB one from MTN in CT. The ping times seem to suggest that all CT traffic goes via JHB!
 
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fismail said:
The fools at Century City can't tell me when they going to get more HSDPA 3.6 devices (usb) and I was awake so what the hell.
Click to expand...
#
To be fair, a R15 voucher goes to the person who can find any retail outlet who knows now when these devices are coming and how much. I've tried about 5 shops - all at popular malls and all shops (the specialised ones as well). MTN usually have them on their system 30 days in advance, Vodacom only a few days before. Yet there is no news whatsoever about the newest devices from ANY network.
 
R15 is a small portion of the VAT I pay on my MTN invoices , rather give an incentive of 2gb bandwidth @ MTN prices on a PAYG sim :)

Skeptik said:
#
To be fair, a R15 voucher goes to the person who can find any retail outlet who knows now when these devices are coming and how much. I've tried about 5 shops - all at popular malls and all shops (the specialised ones as well). MTN usually have them on their system 30 days in advance, Vodacom only a few days before. Yet there is no news whatsoever about the newest devices from ANY network.
Click to expand...
 
ic said:
I suspect it's a multi-part problem, with the first part being the way that Telkodemonopolies routes traffic between Gauteng & Western Cape, and since MTN [like Vodacom] rents its national bandwidth from Telkodemonopolies, MTN will probably be subjected to Telkodemonopolies' screwed-up routing, which seems to be that localised CT traffic gets routed to Jhb [probably Rosebank] and then all the way back to CT again...

Someone like TheRoDent would be better qualified to comment on what I posted above - I could be wrong, TheRoDent would know for sure.
Click to expand...

On Vodacom you break out in Cape Town if in the Western Cape, so the Cpt speedtest.net server should be faster than the Jhb one for Capetonians. But it also reads lower from here, so I suspect the server is being throttled, probably by local links. Or they're running an old version of the engine.


Disclaimer: No trolling, baiting or sceptical posting intended.
 
ic said:
Ok, let's assume for a moment that the locally hosted speedtest.net servers do not have enough bandwidth for the speed tests they are supposed to be performing, I'm sure both Vodacom and MTN have enough bandwidth on their core networks and radiating outwards from their core networks, so how about both Vodacom and MTN contact speedtest.net and offer to host some test servers...
Click to expand...

Excellent suggestion considering the fact that MTN doesn't have an on-network speedtest [yet]:).
 
The cape-town speedtest.net server is www.24-7online.co.za (gasp), a WISP in Cape Town. The actual server appears to be in the Internet Solutions datacenter in Cape Town.

The Joburg server is speedtest.techconcepts.co.za which appears to be hosted at Verizon.

I would honestly take any speedtesting results to either of these servers with a pinch of salt, as they are both apparently "donated" servers. Whilst they tested fairly accurately with my 4Mbps ADSL connection, the actual speeds, and latencies to these things will vary widely depending on the peering arrangements and state of peering bandwidth between Vodacom/MTN and Verizon/Internet Solutions.

I don't think these tests will be a definitive indicator of your actual HSDPA speeds, however they are a reasonable indicator of your HSDPA/INTERNET speeds to the relative locations, which is I guess what most people are interested in, in the end.

As for routing, it really depends on the provider (MTN/Vodacom's) peering arrangements, and their backbone design. Doing a traceroute to either of the speedtest.net servers will indicate what sort of arrangements there are in terms of peering, but it may be difficult to determine whether traffic is actually routed on the providers' backbone due to network design.

Unfortunately/Fortunately, I am pleasantly locked into a 4Mbps uncapped, unshaped adsl connection and hence do not care for the [-]exorbitant[/-] extortionate data rates of Vodacom or MTN, otherwise I could do some routing checks. ;) What's the point of a 3.6mbps or 7.2mbps connection if the data rates make Telkom, and TCP-over-carrier-pigeon look cheap? Can you say 100 gigs in 100 [-]days[/-] minutes (tm)?

If some Capetonians could post some traceroutes to either of these servers, it may reveal some more info.
 
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TheRoDent said:
If some Capetonians could post some traceroutes to either of these servers, it may reveal some more info.
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Since tracerts are blocked on both MTN and Vodacom, all I was able to conclude was that on Vodacom (on both the 'internet' and 'internetvpn' APNs) www.24-7online.co.za was 17 hops away from me, and on MTN it was 22 hops away.

@[the resident conspiracy theorists]: One wonders why they block tracerts, is it because all their traffic goes via satellite through Rwanda and they don't want us to find out? ;)
 
One thing I have noticed with the speedtest.net test diagram is that with Vodacom sim I am situated correctly on Kzn coast, while with an MTN sim it is like I'm in Johannesburg or very close:confused:.
 
ginggs said:
Since tracerts are blocked on both MTN and Vodacom, all I was able to conclude was that on Vodacom (on both the 'internet' and 'internetvpn' APNs) www.24-7online.co.za was 17 hops away from me, and on MTN it was 22 hops away.

@[the resident conspiracy theorists]: One wonders why they block tracerts, is it because all their traffic goes via satellite through Rwanda and they don't want us to find out? ;)
Click to expand...

Vodacom used to have IP 'management' protocols open on the routers but got flooded a few times with ICMP packets and we now block these.

In one specific example a well known IM company had a routing problem with the result that every Vodacom phone attaching to this off-net service caused a ICMP 3 response from the remote router. With hundreds of thousands of devices trying to connect, a cr@pload of traffic was generated and this hurt the network. So to prevent external problems affecting the network, these protocols are now blocked.

So traceroute kinda got caught in the crossfire.
 
Saule said:
One thing I have noticed with the speedtest.net test diagram is that with Vodacom sim I am situated correctly on Kzn coast, while with an MTN sim it is like I'm in Johannesburg or very close:confused:.
Click to expand...

That shows that Vodacom is breaking you into the 'internet' in Durbs while MTN carries your data to Jhb on their internal network and then break out there.

So from the internet side, you seem to be in JHB.

Either model is fine as long as there is bandwidth available. Vodacom specifically went for multiple breakout points because we could not get enough bandwidth from SAIX at one place and also for redunancy.
 
22 hops on MTN HSDPA confirmed.

tracert -d 196.26.229.69

Tracing route to 196.26.229.69 over a maximum of 30 hops

1 93 ms 92 ms 148 ms 10.210.32.98
2 96 ms 92 ms 96 ms 10.210.32.97
3 * * * Request timed out.
4 * * * Request timed out.
5 85 ms 89 ms 119 ms 10.210.32.45
6 * * * Request timed out.
7 * * * Request timed out.
8 * * * Request timed out.
9 * * * Request timed out.
10 * * * Request timed out.
11 * * * Request timed out.
12 * * * Request timed out.
13 * * * Request timed out.
14 * * * Request timed out.
15 * * * Request timed out.
16 * * * Request timed out.
17 * * * Request timed out.
18 * * * Request timed out.
19 * * * Request timed out.
20 * * * Request timed out.
21 * * * Request timed out.
22 263 ms 289 ms 279 ms 196.26.229.69

Trace complete.

ginggs said:
Since tracerts are blocked on both MTN and Vodacom, all I was able to conclude was that on Vodacom (on both the 'internet' and 'internetvpn' APNs) www.24-7online.co.za was 17 hops away from me, and on MTN it was 22 hops away.

@[the resident conspiracy theorists]: One wonders why they block tracerts, is it because all their traffic goes via satellite through Rwanda and they don't want us to find out? ;)
Click to expand...
 
fismail said:
22 hops on MTN HSDPA confirmed.
Click to expand...
Thanks. Could someone in Cape Town try this on VC's unrestricted APN please? Morkhans?

While morkhans and I were looking for the MTN 7.2 tower in Cape Town we noticed that speedtest.net recommended the CT server when we were at Century City, but recommended the JHB one when we were in Harrington Street.
 
Vodacom, Unrestricted

www.24-7online.co.za
Code: 
C:\tracert [url]www.24-7online.co.za[/url]

Tracing route to [url]www.24-7online.co.za[/url] [196.26.229.69]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1   171 ms     *      115 ms  10.113.96.3
  2     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  3     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  4     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  5     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  6     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  7     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  8     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  9     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 10     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 11     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 12     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 13     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 14     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 15     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 16     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 17     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 18     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 19   124 ms   160 ms   139 ms  hellfire.24-7online.co.za [196.26.229.69]

speedtest.techconcepts.co.za
Code: 
C:\tracert speedtest.techconcepts.co.za

Tracing route to speedtest.techconcepts.co.za [66.8.85.147]
over a maximum of 30 hops:

  1     *      117 ms     *     10.113.96.3
  2   225 ms   119 ms   119 ms  10.113.96.3
  3     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  4     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  5     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  6     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  7     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  8     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  9     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 10     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 11     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 12     *        *        *     Request timed out.
 13   129 ms   138 ms   119 ms  speedtest.techconcepts.co.za [66.8.85.147]
 
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