Morkhans and I went and did some speed tests around Cape Town last night.
We used a Huawei E220 with the 7.2Mbps-enabled MTN firmware version 11.117.03.00.67 for the MTN tests, and an Option GlobeTrotter 3.6 Max for the Vodacom tests. Tests for both networks were done on speedtest.net and we always chose the Cape Town server, we also ran the Vodacom Speed Test for the Vodacom card only.
Our first stop was outside the MTN Service Centre at Century City, we had clear line of sight to the MTN tower (3970A/SPOORNET CTC ACASIA PARK) across the N1 from us. Tests started at approximately 19:00.
Next stop was near the MTN Network Group building in Harrington Street, we had clear line of sight to the MTN tower (416C/HARRINGTON STREET) as you can see in this photo. Tests started at approximately 19:30.
Notes: These tests were geographically skewed towards MTN as our primary goal was to prove the existence of a 3.6/7.2 MTN tower.
The Vodacom results in Harrington Street suffered as a result of this as the Vodacom signal strength was only -88dBm, while the MTN signal strength was -55dBm and we could have cooked a packet of microwave popcorn on the dashboard of Morkhans's car.
Without Vodacom's speed test results we could easily have concluded that neither network have 3.6Mbs HSDPA, so either MTN need to come to the party and provide a local speed test, or we need to find an alternative speed test that can cope with 3.6Mbps and higher.
The Harrington Street tower clearly no longer suffers from the 64kbps upload limitation, this disappeared sometime around the middle of December 2007.
We hope to do some more tests soon in a location where both MTN and Vodacom have adequate coverage, hopefully one where draught is sold.
We used a Huawei E220 with the 7.2Mbps-enabled MTN firmware version 11.117.03.00.67 for the MTN tests, and an Option GlobeTrotter 3.6 Max for the Vodacom tests. Tests for both networks were done on speedtest.net and we always chose the Cape Town server, we also ran the Vodacom Speed Test for the Vodacom card only.
Our first stop was outside the MTN Service Centre at Century City, we had clear line of sight to the MTN tower (3970A/SPOORNET CTC ACASIA PARK) across the N1 from us. Tests started at approximately 19:00.
| Network/Test | Download (kbps) | Upload (kbps) | Ping (ms) |
| MTN/speedtest.net | 837 | 51 | 677 |
| MTN/speedtest.net | 648 | 51 | 663 |
| MTN/speedtest.net | 825 | 51 | 635 |
| Vodacom/speedtest.net | 1003 | 100 | 156 |
| Vodacom/speedtest.net | 991 | 307 | 174 |
| Vodacom/speedtest.net | 703 | 325 | 162 |
| Vodacom/Vodacom | 2615 | 346 | N/A |
| Vodacom/Vodacom | 1770 | 338 | N/A |
| Vodacom/Vodacom | 2088 | 298 | N/A |
| Network/Test | Download (kbps) | Upload (kbps) | Ping (ms) |
| MTN/speedtest.net | 973 | 300 | 365 |
| MTN/speedtest.net | 973 | 303 | 341 |
| MTN/speedtest.net | 511 | 307 | 348 |
| Vodacom/speedtest.net | 665 | 333 | 166 |
| Vodacom/speedtest.net | 633 | 105 | 162 |
| Vodacom/speedtest.net | 995 | 295 | 201 |
| Vodacom/Vodacom | 542 | 342 | N/A |
| Vodacom/Vodacom | 1161 | 125 | N/A |
| Vodacom/Vodacom | 757 | 166 | N/A |
Notes: These tests were geographically skewed towards MTN as our primary goal was to prove the existence of a 3.6/7.2 MTN tower.
The Vodacom results in Harrington Street suffered as a result of this as the Vodacom signal strength was only -88dBm, while the MTN signal strength was -55dBm and we could have cooked a packet of microwave popcorn on the dashboard of Morkhans's car.
Without Vodacom's speed test results we could easily have concluded that neither network have 3.6Mbs HSDPA, so either MTN need to come to the party and provide a local speed test, or we need to find an alternative speed test that can cope with 3.6Mbps and higher.
The Harrington Street tower clearly no longer suffers from the 64kbps upload limitation, this disappeared sometime around the middle of December 2007.
We hope to do some more tests soon in a location where both MTN and Vodacom have adequate coverage, hopefully one where draught is sold.
