XT vs CDMA data speeds

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › XT vs CDMA data speeds

w2krules

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#34964 1-Jun-2009 22:13

Went to the Warehouse today and bought a R6 phone for $149. Lots of features for the money, and excellent speech quality. I've just tested data speeds using Speedtest:

The download speed is OK, but upload and latency are not as good as CDMA:

I know that I'm using a cheap phone, but it does support HSDPA so should be indicative of XT network performance. Has anyone tried one of the XT USB data sticks yet?

I live in Onehunga, Auckland, and have full signal strength on both devices.

[Moderator edit (MF): folks, there's an IMAGE button in the rich text editor!)

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#220630 1-Jun-2009 22:21

OK, I'm having trouble including the Speedtest results in my post. What's the best way to do this?

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freitasm

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#220634 1-Jun-2009 22:25

Just use the standard IMG tags, or click the image icon in the text editor (if you have javascript enabled on your browser of course).

I will leave to someone else to tell us if those phones support anything over 1.4 Mbps... There are all different classes of handsets, some support faster data than others (just look at my speed tests of a couple of weeks ago for example).

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w2krules

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#220643 1-Jun-2009 22:34

Thanks, I did try with the IMG tags so will use the image icon next time.

The download speed seems fine, but am not impressed at getting twice the latency with the XT network. The browsing experience with the CDMA card is certainly better, as you'd expect with half the latency.

The phone itself seems great. Came with a USB cable and headset, and the charger has the new micro USB connector. And it charges through the USB cable - why can't Nokia manage this feature?

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cyril7

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#220689 2-Jun-2009 07:54

Hi, can you try using a command prompt ping rather than speedtest for latency, I have noted the flash app uses some dubious method to calculate that, maybe forgets to includes its own load on the cpu.

Cyril

friedCrumpet

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#220789 2-Jun-2009 11:55

I will leave to someone else to tell us if those phones support anything over 1.4 Mbps... There are all different classes of handsets, some support faster data than others (just look at my speed tests of a couple of weeks ago for example).

According to the manual the phone supports HSDPA 3.6Mbps.

w2krules

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#221004 2-Jun-2009 17:52

cyril7: Hi, can you try using a command prompt ping rather than speedtest for latency, I have noted the flash app uses some dubious method to calculate that, maybe forgets to includes its own load on the cpu.

Cyril

OK, I'll do this later in the evening. Although the subjective browsing experience was defintely better using CDMA.

If I get time, I'll run some other tests using a Nokia 6121 on the Vodafone and XT networks. This supports 3.6 mb/s HSDPA.

I'm trying to decide whether to ditch my CDMA data plan, which is quite expensive compared to the XT network data rates.

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cyril7

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#221007 2-Jun-2009 17:55

Hi, yes no doubt CDMA has shorter latency, this is well known, however I have often found the speedtest flash app appears to find an extra 30-60mS over a command ping (but it does seem variable), guess which one I trust.

Cyril

Loftus

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#221027 2-Jun-2009 18:37

300kbps is pretty good for a non-HSUPA upload rate. From memory 384 kbps is the top R99 PS bearer.

You didn't mention the model of EVDO (not-CDMA) device you were comparing it with, but given the 600 kbps rate I'm guessing it's one of the recent RevA models

w2krules

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#221033 2-Jun-2009 18:59

Loftus: 300kbps is pretty good for a non-HSUPA upload rate. From memory 384 kbps is the top R99 PS bearer.

You didn't mention the model of EVDO (not-CDMA) device you were comparing it with, but given the 600 kbps rate I'm guessing it's one of the recent RevA models

Yeah, 300 kbps is the fastest I've seen on Vodafone also.

It's the current Sierra Wireless Express Card, which is EVDO Rev. A. I've been hugely impressed by the performance when I can get a Rev. A connection. At home, it's usually faster with lower latencies to overseas sites than the Orcon+ network.

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w2krules

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#221459 3-Jun-2009 22:26

Ran some more tests - I'm on the 22nd floor of the James Cook in Welly tonight. EVDO Rev A was an instant fail as I could only get a 1x connection. Nothing between my Nokia 6121 on Voda and the R6 on XT - about 1.6 Mbps download, 0.1 ish Mbps upload and 330 ms ping. And yes, the Speedtest ping is misleading - actual pings were about 140 ms to the same server in Auckland (WXC).

I'll swap the SIM cards between the phones next to see if this makes any difference, but had better get back to work now.

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sbiddle

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#221488 4-Jun-2009 06:44

w2krules: Ran some more tests - I'm on the 22nd floor of the James Cook in Welly tonight. EVDO Rev A was an instant fail as I could only get a 1x connection. Nothing between my Nokia 6121 on Voda and the R6 on XT - about 1.6 Mbps download, 0.1 ish Mbps upload and 330 ms ping. And yes, the Speedtest ping is misleading - actual pings were about 140 ms to the same server in Auckland (WXC).

I'll swap the SIM cards between the phones next to see if this makes any difference, but had better get back to work now.

Interesting you should get a fail on CDMA. Telecom have both XT and CDMA sites on that building.

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w2krules

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#221489 4-Jun-2009 07:09

sbiddle:

Interesting you should get a fail on CDMA. Telecom have both XT and CDMA sites on that building.

Checked CDMA this morning - it's fine now, and is clearly the fastest. Actual ping to WXC is 70 ms.

So I think I'll keep my CDMA card in the meantime and revisit things after the XT speed upgrade at the end of the year.

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NealR

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#221500 4-Jun-2009 08:18

Can I point out that the XT R6 has a theoretical maximum uplink speed of 384kbps. Which means that if you're using a CDMA PCMCIA or USB modem with a theoretical uplink speed of 1.8Mbps it is not a valid comparison.

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w2krules

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#221516 4-Jun-2009 09:36

Thanks for the info, but I'm nowhere near the theoretical upload maximum.

Freitasm got some very impressive results using a Sierra Wireless USB stick before the network went public, but I'd really like to see some results now. Maybe Telecom would like to lend me a USB stick to do some tests - I travel to some interesting places for my work. :)

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scottjpalmer

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#221541 4-Jun-2009 11:35

w2krules: Maybe Telecom would like to lend me a USB stick to do some tests

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