Vodacom uses more data than MTN?

[lombruan]

We've got a peculiar situation. We recently moved all our company's data contracts from MTN to Vodacom. Our sales staff (approx 300) each have an HP Mini netbook with an internal 3G module.

On the HP Mobile Broadband software we noticed that each user on Vodacom is using a lot more data than what it used to be on MTN.

I connected two netbooks, one with a Vodacom SIM and one with MTN. On each netbook I did exactly the same - connected to the internet, accessed our company server and completed one worksheet. On Vodacom the counter showed close to 4MB of data. On MTN it used 600KB. How can this be?

To provide more details:
1) The netbooks are HP Mini 1050ei with an internal 3G module.
2) The company server is a SQL based system that staff has to complete worksheets on.
3) The server is hosted locally with CMC Networks in Sunninghill (http://www.cmcnetworks.co.za)
4) The netbooks are running Windows 7 Starter edition, users do not have admin access
5) Windows updates are disabled
6) Bitdefender is installed on each netbook, parental controls are set up to ONLY allow access to our company server at CMC Networks.

How can it be that Vodacom uses so much more data than MTN?

In the past users got by on 100MB of data a month. Now we've used up more than 300MB in a week.

ANY advise or comments will be highly appreciated!

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

Retry the test. The 3,3MB sounds like an updated. Could also be caching. Personally I've done a similar test but under LINUX and cannot see a difference in data usage.

But are your using the counter on the PC or on the networks website? (EDIT: I see your using the HP software. Personally I cannot see how there could be a difference based on network).

I would say retry the test but swap the SIMS to see if it is not the OS setup.

 

[lombruan]

We re-tested as per your suggestion with the same results. Windows updates are disabled on both machines. Before running the test we made sure the Bitdefender is also updated, then started the test. Each time Vodacom uses close to 4MB and MTN only 600KB. I cannot find a reason why.

 

[Other Pineapple Smurf]

It sounds rather odd. I would put it down to software. I did some googling and the app is linked to Verizon. Try it with the Vodacom app - download from their site. Test between the Vodacom/Vodafone app and HP Mobile one.

It could be that on MTN, you have ports blocked that the HP App uses but on Vodacom the ports are open.

I have a 3G modem I use for my wifes backups under Linux and I do not have any overhead - her backups are < 1MB and the data usage is spot on.

 

[lombruan]

I'm downloading NetMeter form hootech.com to test with. Will revert back with the results, but based on our Vodacom invoices vs our MTN invoices definitly use more data on Vodacom for the same tasks.