Same modem, same tower - Very different upload Speed on 2Deg. Ideas?

Forums › 2degrees (including Slingshot, Orcon, Flip, Stuff Fibre, MyRepublic, 2talk and Vocus) › Same modem, same tower - Very different upload Speed on 2Deg. Ideas?

JoeF

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#103172 31-May-2012 19:59

I'm over in Napier and have been using Voda mobile broadband. Down 3-4Mbps, Up 1Mbps give or take. Signal strength from where I am is only about -85db. I'm using a Vodem Pro stick. The newer one they've got out.

Here's where it gets interesting.

I leave everything the same except switch out the SIM for a new 2Degrees one I picked up and somehow my signal boosts by -10 db straight away to -75 or so. Download speeds stay about the same, but uploads take a killing. I just tested it at 0.07 Mbps.

In Napier, from what I understand 2Deg and Voda would be the same tower, yes?

Any ideas? Would it make a difference to get the new/better 2Deg Mobile data stick?

Keen to hear your thoughts on why this might be happening. Thanks!

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#633660 31-May-2012 20:04

No, 2degrees have their own network in Hawkes Bay now. Speeds would depend on the usual factors.

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JoeF

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#633664 31-May-2012 20:07

oh - ok, I didnt realize.

Thanks for the quick reply. I just checked back to mention that I've got the K3805-Z plugged into a Cisco 3G router and made no updates to any firmware on the modem. Just worked straight away.

JoeF

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#633665 31-May-2012 20:07

So - do you recon their modem would give a better upload speed?

sbiddle

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#633671 31-May-2012 20:15

Depends entirely on what the capabilties of their cellsite are.

Vodafone have HSUPA across most of their network with up with 5.76Mbps (category 6) on a large number of sites, and 2Mbps (category 5) on the others. 2degrees only deployed HSUPA last year, and I believe only have category 5 on most sites.

Different devices can also deliver significant differences in performance.

JoeF

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#633674 31-May-2012 20:21

Thanks for the insight. I might drop the $100 and get the 2deg modem.

Unbelievably, I ended up having to go this route for my primary internet connection, and Vodafone wont provide anything upwards of 6gb per month without getting a 2nd sim.

So - at 12GB a pop on 2 Degrees, it's attractive. now... if i could just get that upload speed a bit better...

sbiddle

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#633686 31-May-2012 20:37

It could well be that 2degrees don't have HSUPA enabled on their network there, which would limit you to 3G rel 99 speeds. Buying new hardware won't change anything is this is the case.

SaltyNZ

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#633847 1-Jun-2012 07:15

sbiddle: It could well be that 2degrees don't have HSUPA enabled on their network there, which would limit you to 3G rel 99 speeds. Buying new hardware won't change anything is this is the case.

Well, he said he got 0.07 up. Even R99 is faster than that so there's something else going on.

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JoeF

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#633855 1-Jun-2012 07:47

They would have only just added the towers and the download speed is between 3-4Mbps.

So it looks like is the cat 6? I'm getting 0.11 this AM. (EDIT: to be fair, if I use SpeedTest.net which hits an NZ server rather than speakeasy.net/speedtest in LA that I was using - I get 0.93 up)

Maybe there's nothing that can be done to improve this from my end?

SaltyNZ

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#633858 1-Jun-2012 07:57

As per other threads on this topic, Speedtest is not a good way to measure cellular upload. Upload starts at R99 and then ramps up as you continue to use it because HSUPA uses disproportionately more network resources so we only start it when you need it. Speedtest does not download enough to activate HSUPA reliably, giving you an artificially slow result. If you want a better idea try uploading a big file to a local server and measuring that instead.

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sbiddle

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#633860 1-Jun-2012 07:59

You didn't mention you were trying to use a speedtest server in the US to measure speed. For reasons that would take me far too long to write down that isn't going to give accurate results.

JoeF

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#633862 1-Jun-2012 08:07

my bad- It's a habbit. I've always just used that site to test speed. To be fair - I also used that same site to test the vodafone speed, which was higher.

EDIT: Uploading large file gives 230 kb/s to US-based server.

SaltyNZ

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#633877 1-Jun-2012 08:53

So, you're getting 5.76 HSUPA then. That real life speed is way better than my DSL!

Edit -- kilobits or kilobytes per second?

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SteveON

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#633890 1-Jun-2012 09:10

So that explains why I sit on 3g and when I use data I get H. Just did a speedtest in welly and got 4.8 down and 1.7 up.... very happy with that!

JoeF

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#633894 1-Jun-2012 09:16

SaltyNZ: So, you're getting 5.76 HSUPA then. That real life speed is way better than my DSL!

Edit -- kilobits or kilobytes per second?

kilobytes.

pwner

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#633958 1-Jun-2012 10:35

JoeF:
SaltyNZ: So, you're getting 5.76 HSUPA then. That real life speed is way better than my DSL!

Edit -- kilobits or kilobytes per second?

kilobytes.

230kBytes/s = 1840kbits/s or 1.8Mb/s so i would say you are definately getting 5.76 HSUPA.

remember all the mobile speed badwidths are presented as (k,M,G)bits/sec not (k,M,G)bytes/sec

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