Are 4G phone download speeds indicative of 4G Wireless Broadband speeds?

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Are 4G phone download speeds indicative of 4G Wireless Broadband speeds?

potsiea

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#268042 25-Feb-2020 10:57

Hi,

We are rural and only get 20Mbps down, 1.5 up on VDSL due to our distance from the cabinet

I am considering going back to Spark when/if they offer a reasonable data allowance on 4G Wireless Broadband

If my Samung S10e gets a result of 64 Mbps down and 18 up on a Speedtest test, would that be indicative of the speeds i would likely get if i signed up on 4G Wireless Broadband?

Do you see data allowances improving from 120GB in the near future?

Thanks

Edit: I just did another test on the side of the house i know the cell phone tower is located on and got 191 down, 41 up

nztim

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#2426823 25-Feb-2020 11:55

Netflix uses about 1.4GB per hour so do the maths to see if 120GB will be enough

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

potsiea

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#2426826 25-Feb-2020 12:01

Thanks, but it won't be enough.

We stream tv, and i train indoors with two apps, one of which i download multi hour 1080p & 4K films for, and the other uses a bit also. We are well over 120gb every month, but i could get by with 240.

It is only worth the hassle of keeping an eye on it if 4G speeds like the phone can get are achievable

nztim

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#2426855 25-Feb-2020 13:09

potsiea:

Thanks, but it won't be enough.

We stream tv, and i train indoors with two apps, one of which i download multi hour 1080p & 4K films for, and the other uses a bit also. We are well over 120gb every month, but i could get by with 240.

It is only worth the hassle of keeping an eye on it if 4G speeds like the phone can get are achievable

Only way is to try it which you can do before disconnecting VDSL also Skinny (which is just the Spark network with a different name) do 300GB for for $59 put your address into their webpage to see if they offer it in your area

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

potsiea

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#2426915 25-Feb-2020 13:37

Thanks, and will do. I have looked at Skinny, but they don't even offer any Wireless Broadband plan at our address, which is odd as Spark do.

I was thinking of signing up for them for where have a bach. I suppose i could do that and try it out here before moving it up there

geekiegeek

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#2426925 25-Feb-2020 13:49

Keep both. Stream over VDSL and save Wireless for things you want speed for.

potsiea

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#2426926 25-Feb-2020 13:54

That is a good option to consider thanks, especially given how much more Spark want to go from 120gb to 240gb per month!

They are saying speeds will be similar between phone and wireless broadband

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Dugimodo

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#2426935 25-Feb-2020 14:15

Yes speeds should be the same, it is dependant on the total load on the cell site and will vary during the day though.

If it's a busy site with a lot of customers it might slow down a lot at peak times.

hio77

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#2427016 25-Feb-2020 17:54

Speeds will be about the same, you may find depending on device it's slightly better or worse depending on level of CA, Modulation and Attenna gain in use.

It's rare mobile is faster than the modem except in the case that it's a full 4.9G tower on a high end mobile device (which for a rural site, would not be the case at all..)

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hio77

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#2427017 25-Feb-2020 17:55

potsiea:

Thanks, and will do. I have looked at Skinny, but they don't even offer any Wireless Broadband plan at our address, which is odd as Spark do.

I was thinking of signing up for them for where have a bach. I suppose i could do that and try it out here before moving it up there

Just remember to update the address so we don't geolock you for moving your modem outside of the address it's allocated at.

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potsiea

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#2427145 25-Feb-2020 22:18

Yes, understood.

I don't think i could do that anyway as Skinny aren't available at our home address, so i don't expect firing it up here first would work

hio77

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#2427147 25-Feb-2020 22:34

Skinny broadband is only offered in urban areas on fixed wireless.

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