Average mobile broadband speed only 0.87Mbits/sec

3G - we cant even get 2G here

It would be nice to have some sort of mobile phone signal in my part of the world. One of the benefits of living in Suffolk I suppose

By ashtongraham on 25 Nov 2009

ISPs advertising has cake and eats it

ISPs use the words "unlimited downloads" when there are limits, on the basis that most users will never reach that limit. Surely the advertising of expected speeds should therefore be on the same basis - ie advertise the speed that most users will not exceed.

By halsteadk on 25 Nov 2009

I get bursts of up to 3 Mbit/sec on my 3 dongle, with an average around 2 Mbit. The main problem with the connection is not the speed, but the ability for it to download files larger than a few MB. I've found that only a couple of downloads bigger than about 5 MB have completed successfully, and retrying eats into your bandwidth allowance. I understand these connections are not for downloading files, but it's a bit sad when I can't even download small files successfully.

By piphil on 25 Nov 2009

Tempted to switch....

That's still faster than my landline ADSL manages on average.

By skarlock on 25 Nov 2009

That means I can download stuff for 30 minutes before I hit my unlimited limit.

By peterm2k on 25 Nov 2009

I'm only getting 0.6 Mbit/sec at home on 3G which is ten times slower than my ADSL connection, however I was slightly depressed when I noticed that its upload speed was actually slightly faster...

By nerazzurri on 25 Nov 2009

THREE 3g service

Max overnight 2435mbs on the 15GB service. Though the average is considerably lower as this act as an on demand sevice. I have have speeds over 3mbs when downloading large files from sources with good cerver capacity. The largest file being over 2GB Win7RC with no problems. Though th majority of my use is during the period of 1900-0700. Since October 2009 there has also been sustantial upgrades to masts in the local area. The best being in Warwick CV34, the mast moved from in a dip, by the canal to the top of a water tank on a hill & the capacity was doubled.

By bigluap on 26 Nov 2009

Three 3g versus Landline

I have a three dongle and can achieve speeds of upto 3.4mbps. Perfect. Unstable connection causes me all sorts of problems. But I could download programs, and big programs no problem. £15 per two weeks about 6gig a month.
I now have landline on with virgin media. At tea time(4pm 'til about 7pm), I can't get online at all. When I was with BT a couple of years ago, I had no speed issues, no dropouts or anything. Since I had this put back on, it hardly works and if I get two mbps I am lucky. My dongle blows landline away, speed wise.
Altho, in three's favour, they have been very good when I phone them up to complain. I have had two lots of free credit from them, because of the problems I have been getting connecting, and lack of stability.
Landline promise upto 20mbps(virgin), if I can get 10% of that it is doing well. Customer support with virgin is less than useless. One person told me he didn't know about windows 7. I said to him that was not my problem and he hung up. Total ignorance.

By audiolink21 on 26 Nov 2009

Too early

I'm cancelling my contract next month (as soon as it expires).

I signed up as at the time I was regularly commuting to/from London, and thought it would enable me to work remotely. I soon discovered that it was fine within 20 minutes of London and a few other spots along the way, but as soon as you were a few miles outside a city, it died to unusable.

And it wasn't capacity related, the connection died to GPRS. Is it me, or does the East and West Coast mainlines seem like prime places where people might want to use mobile broadband?

(And unfortunately, the WiFi on the train showed exactly the same symptoms as it was powered by 3G modems)

Unlike the last customer I've had no problem with Virgin (cable broadband) which I've been using for over a decade, but I do understand from the coverage maps that Three are the only 3G network to actually have proper significant coverage, rather than city-based hot-spots - and I look forward to them carrying the iPhone or similar soon.

By JulesLt on 26 Nov 2009

Three 3g versus Landline

I have a three dongle and can achieve speeds of upto 3.4mbps. Perfect. Unstable connection causes me all sorts of problems. But I could download programs, and big programs no problem. £15 per two weeks about 6gig a month.
I now have landline on with virgin media. At tea time(4pm 'til about 7pm), I can't get online at all. When I was with BT a couple of years ago, I had no speed issues, no dropouts or anything. Since I had this put back on, it hardly works and if I get two mbps I am lucky. My dongle blows landline away, speed wise.
Altho, in three's favour, they have been very good when I phone them up to complain. I have had two lots of free credit from them, because of the problems I have been getting connecting, and lack of stability.
Landline promise upto 20mbps(virgin), if I can get 10% of that it is doing well. Customer support with virgin is less than useless. One person told me he didn't know about windows 7. I said to him that was not my problem and he hung up. Total ignorance.

By audiolink21 on 26 Nov 2009

Mobile dial-up

I've had a NetMeter on my laptop since I got my dongle 4 month ago and the fastest speed registered in that time is 592.9k.
I live in the center of a town and I can see the 3G transmitter on the roof of the telephone exchange from my bedroom window.
The constant drop-outs mean I don't even get to post on a forum like this unless I compose it first on Notepad and paste it in.
The companies should be required to rename the service "Mobile Dial-up" and cut the price to one-third. I'd be reluctant to pay £5 a month for this, I'm paying £15. And I always reach my bandwidth limit every month, not because I'm downloading anything, but because I'm constantly hitting F5 on every connexion just to get the page back.

By pendle on 26 Nov 2009

Rubbish

I bought a PAYG dongle from 3, about a year ago and put, or it had, I think, about £20 credit on it. Totally useless. I live in S. London, so not "in the sticks", but no signal, surfing was impossibly slow. This technology isn't really up to it.

By Klobba on 26 Nov 2009

Wasted Downloads

I use 3 3g dongle since last year.The maximum i've had is 0.5MBit per sec the signal is affected by geographic location and features, The weather and peak times. However the signal constantly jumps between 3g and hsdpa and can be annoying when your in the middle of something and you constantly have to refresh the page. Downloading anything higher than 20 MB is a challenge,when you get halfway and the signal terminates. Using IE 8 , invariably it means a fresh download and more expense.

The best way to download anything big is to use the excellent U torrent 1.8.4.,even if you get a termination, the file is accumulated and you just keep connecting to peers until you have it completed. PAYG users must be wasting vast amounts of their allowance with aborted downloads.

The world of 3g can be frustrating and take's bit of adapting,It does have its advantages and I'm sure it will improve.

By blackcat on 26 Nov 2009

3G speeds

My company have recorded average speeds throughout the country and produce an internal guide for use by our roadwarriors.
The key points to consider are
1. Use a resumable download mechanism.
2. Don't try and send / recieve huge files, visit a hub with wired access.
3. Improve time management skills by knowing how to work effectively offline.

By mrg9999 on 27 Nov 2009

On my iPhone on O2 my speeds fluctuated wildly between 0 and 600k
On T-Mobile my speeds are between 1Mb and 1.8Mb but if I run the test 3 times in the same place the results will be similar - on O2 I would get 600 k then 23k then 400k without moving the phone.
Using a Three 3G dongle I never got above 600k and got faster speeds tethering through my iPhone but my 3Gb/month limit on T is restrictive.
My home BB seems a fairly steady 50Mb even over wireless.

By neilwar1 on 28 Nov 2009

Three 3G Service

Just received the MI-FI Wireless Router, Huawei E5830
18.02.2010
DL: 4985kbps UL: 1673kbps
Source: Cisco Network Magic: Warwick to London.

So the mast upgrades have definately made a difference.

previous post:
26 Nov 2009
DL: 2435mbs on the 15GB service.

By roberttrebor on 18 Feb 2010