{"id":549479,"date":"2006-07-11T08:26:15","date_gmt":"2006-07-11T08:26:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/549479-hsdpa-versus-iburst.html"},"modified":"2006-07-11T08:26:15","modified_gmt":"2006-07-11T08:26:15","slug":"hsdpa-versus-iburst","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/549479-hsdpa-versus-iburst.html","title":{"rendered":"HSDPA versus iBurst"},"content":{"rendered":"

For this comparison we opted for Vodacom\u2019s HSDPA service with iBurst.\u00a0 MTN\u2019s HSDPA service would have served just as well, but the practicality of Vodacom\u2019s superior HSDPA coverage made it the obvious choice.<\/font> <\/p>\n

A variety of tests were run, including local and international web based speed tests, software based performance testing, latency tests, download speeds and VoIP performance.\u00a0 <\/font><\/p>\n

The tests were performed in the evening to give a good indication of the potential performance of the separate services. This however means that potential congestion during business hours was not taken into account.<\/font> <\/p>\n

The average iBurst signal strength for the testing was between 95% and 100% while Vodacom\u2019s HSDPA signal strength sat at 3 bars (roughly 60%).\u00a0 <\/font><\/p>\n

Comparative Performances<\/strong> <\/font><\/p>\n

In the local speed department Vodacom was king with an impressive average download speed of 721 Kbps.\u00a0 iBurst\u2019s local downlink average was 187 Kbps.<\/font> <\/p>\n

When moving internationally, Vodacom again performed better with a downlink speed of 327 Kbps and an uplink speed of 284 Kbps.\u00a0 iBurst in comparison had an average downlink speed of 147 Kbps and an uplink speed of 43 Kbps.<\/font> <\/p>\n

Vodacom proved far superior in the latency department with an average local latency of 139 ms and an international average of 477 ms.\u00a0\u00a0 iBurst in comparison had a local latency of 679 ms. and an international latency of 1255 Kbps.\u00a0 <\/font><\/p>\n

This lower latency of Vodacom\u2019s service also showed in the VoIP testing with HSDPA proving to be more suitable for VoIP use than iBurst.\u00a0 This was confirmed in both online VoIP tests and practical use of the service.<\/font> <\/p>\n

It should be pointed out that these tests were in no way exhaustive and aspects like reliability, mobility and pricing were not considered.\u00a0 More in-depth testing will be conducted in future with a large user base and for a far longer period of time.<\/font> <\/p>\n

Which service?<\/strong> <\/font><\/p>\n

The clear winner in the performance department was Vodacom\u2019s HSDPA service.\u00a0 It reigned supreme in every category of testing, proving that HSDPA is living up to its hype.\u00a0 <\/font><\/p>\n

iBurst is however more competitive when it comes to price, especially for moderate or high usage.\u00a0 iBurst recently launched a R 389-00 per month 1 GB service, competing favorably with Vodacom\u2019s R 499-00 per month for a 1 GB HSDPA account.\u00a0 The modem inclusive price of R 579-00 for iBurst is also cheaper than Vodacom\u2019s R 599-00.\u00a0 <\/font><\/p>\n

The biggest saving on iBurst however comes with higher cap accounts.\u00a0 iBurst\u2019s 3 GB account is priced at R 599-00 per month while Vodacom charges R 1497-00 for the same data allowance. Pricing favours iBurst even more for 9 GB\u00a0 plus accounts. <\/font><\/p>\n

Vodacom\u2019s HSDPA\u2019s superior performance and excellent countrywide coverage makes it the obvious choice for users looking for a mobile or fixed wireless broadband solution with low data usage.\u00a0 For a higher usage – typically 3 GB or more – a fixed wireless or semi-mobile solutions like iBurst or MyWireless should definitely be considered as a viable option.\u00a0 <\/font><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Discuss this article<\/font><\/a> <\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There has been a lot of talk about which local wireless service produces the best performance, so we decided to pit Vodacom HSDPA service against iBurst. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-549479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549479"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=549479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}