Telkom Mobile LTE Speedtest Results

That's not right. Your Speedtest says everything should load in milliseconds. How many bars signal are you getting at -90dBM?
 
Azimuth said:
That's not right. Your Speedtest says everything should load in milliseconds. How many bars signal are you getting at -90dBM?
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I think the website I am visiting has issues, tried other sites they loaded rapidly.. Could be a routing problem & this is my RSSI - RSSI (dBm): -63 using internal antenna

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@Azimuth fluctuates not consistent - 4 bars(Now) then changes to 3 bars..

Technicians(field testers) left my house now, over an hour of testing &taken down readings,screenshots etc.. Their findings in the vehicle were terrible( opinion) only 1 signal bar (don't remember -rssi) then they attached an antenna to the fixed router in vehicle & things didn't approve much & couldn't get anything better but with the antenna attached their speedtest result was around 30 megs prior 9 megs in their vehicle without an antenna..

In my house the readings were much better.

Amazing they use totally different dashboards to us;opens up Google Earth, all the base stations are shown. The sector/mass direction.

He has spreadsheet with all speedtest results taken over the weeks. The best 1 I saw was 40 meg... LTE is the future


Things have improved drastically since they left! Not sure if it was the analyst
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Azimuth said:
The only way to know for sure is to test the service yourself. Firstly, are you inside or outside of the LTE coverage map? If outside, how far?

What I'd recommend you do is take advantage of the Telkom LTE 14-day money back guarantee. Details here. Post your results then we can help you decide if it's worth it. You could still cancel the contract within the 14 days and then proceed with prepaid. The B593 can be obtained on prepaid with a data bundle for as little as R2200 (last I checked).

Unfortunately there is no other way to test TM LTE other than with an LTE router. There's no phone (iPhone 5C and 5S still not configured) that can run on TM's 2300MHz LTE network. There's also no readily available LTE signal tester in SA.

Edit: just re-read that you are inside LTE coverage. I'd recommend you still go with a B593 as above and post your results. Either way, your speed issues will definitely be a thing of the past. And skip the E3276.
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I think the E3276 is better for me because I use a laptop and there won't be any other device using the router. So I'm skipping the B593.
 
Sly21C said:
I think the E3276 is better for me because I use a laptop and there won't be any other device using the router. So I'm skipping the B593.
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If you mobile on the go then I would recommend you get a MIFI device that way you can share your internet connection with your smartphone / Smart TV, etc.

What I don't like about USB modems they overheat if you leave your computer on for more than 24 hours
 
Azimuth said:
Remind me how many bars signal you're getting?
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Fluctuates! Between 3 - 4 bars. Only problem I do experience time to time is high packet loss. I will be sitting in traffic waiting for the green light to allow me to process further. This happens on every start-up(connected to network) takes about 5 minutes to have free flowing traffic.

They busy doing optimization on the tower (fluctuates when running multiple speedtest and isn't consistent), changing sector pointing in my direction. The closest tower I connect 2 is roughly about 3 KM - 4 KM away from me and the elevation is against me. No clear line of sight!

Hopefully once they start erecting more LTE towers in the area signal will improve drastically but highly doubt it. Already there are 3.
 
Wow, 3-4 bars at 3-4km?! You must be quite far out of the official coverage but clearly there's nothing wrong with your LTE. What antenna are you using again? Perhaps you're a perfect candidate for the LPDA big guns on a nice 3m mast.

Your packet loss issue is on a phone on 3G?
 
Azimuth said:
Wow, 3-4 bars at 3-4km?! You must be quite far out of the official coverage but clearly there's nothing wrong with your LTE. What antenna are you using again? Perhaps you're a perfect candidate for the LPDA big guns on a nice 3m mast.

Your packet loss issue is on a phone on 3G?
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Probably exaggerating about being 3 Km away from the base station. Probably 1 - 2 KM away roughly but takes about 3 - 5 minute drive to reach the base station. The first week I used LTE clearly there was a problem cause my speeds were only 3 - 5 Megs, when the telkom support technician came over he was receiving only 7 megs . On Thursday night when I switched it on again was impressed at the drastic improvement but still prefer 3 G for now cause - this STOP & GO to allow me to visit websites is irritating at times...

I am not using any antenna whatsoever! Just facing the router in the right direction - where the base station is situated. Oh and not using external antenna *standalone that comes in the box* using the internal antenna get better readings.

Will probably look into getting LPDA antenna at a later but after what the contractor told me about the best speedtest results they receiving is average 20 mbs, max they have seen was around 38 megs.

Packet loss is on LTE --- One I connect to the networks takes about roughly 5 minutes to optimize before it allows me to visit websites without any hiccups .. Under the impression could be noise related *interference*
 
Telkom Mobile LTE Speedtest Results - post trial

Measure your distance on Google Maps?

7 Months ago my LTE service was quite erratic too. Without antennas I got up to 25Mbps but more often than not, 1/3 to 1/2 that speed. Sometimes it trickled. That is when I added in the LPDA antennas. However, if you look back at the history of this thread and the results I posted, while I got some amazing speeds - they continued to be very erratic. Today my speeds are very stable and that is *without* an antenna. The LTE signal and tower performance definitely improved these last 7 months.

You cannot compare the paddle antennas that come with the B593 to proper external antennas ie. LPDA-0092 or XPOL-06. If you want full signal and a stable experience, then I urge you to go for one of these solutions. Regards the so-called max the Telkom Mobile tech spoke of, you know that I have gotten up to 73Mbps (quite a long time ago, never reached that again) but mostly average 50Mbps on a desktop and 35Mbps on a mobile device. At The Coca Cola Dome I saw a demo where they were running speeds of almost 100Mbps all day long (RAGE 2013; full signal; no antennas; < -50dBm). So I'd say the Telkom Mobile tech's averages are from a very small geographic sample.

RichardG said:
Fluctuates! Between 3 - 4 bars. Only problem I do experience time to time is high packet loss. I will be sitting in traffic waiting for the green light to allow me to process further. This happens on every start-up(connected to network) takes about 5 minutes to have free flowing traffic.
Click to expand...

RichardG said:
Packet loss is on LTE --- One I connect to the networks takes about roughly 5 minutes to optimize before it allows me to visit websites without any hiccups .. Under the impression could be noise related *interference*
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Haha! I don't think I understood your figure of speech when referring to "sitting in traffic waiting for the green light".
 
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Telkom Mobile LTE Speedtest Results - post trial

Then I ask again...what device are you using to obtain LTE on the go? Edit: is this another crazy figure of speech???
 
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Telkom Mobile LTE Speedtest Results - post trial

Ignore.
 
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This is must be the worst LTE speed I have seen ever.
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P.S This isn't a place where I use the internet! Thank goodness but the router does report 3 bars with RSSI -72


1 PLMN: 65502
2 Service status: Valid service
3 RSSI (dBm): -79
4 RSRP (dBm): -106
5 RSRQ (dB): -8
 
Telkom Mobile LTE Speedtest Results - post trial

Yip, there's an issue at the tower. Report it and see what happens. Over 6 months my tower went from wonky to super stable.

Edit: you know, I've made this observation before. I don't think RSSI is the right thing to look at. On my router it's RSRP. If your signal strength is -106dBM, then that's the issue. You will achieve stability in your case by using an applicable Poynting antenna(s). It's the same with WLAN: one bar and it isn't very stable. I think the three bars being reported by the LTE router isn't a good indicator if one just looks at that -106dBM figure.
 
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