[stuartturrell]

Hi,
I am looking at speeds on the mobile networks for data.

I see roll out of 3.5g is happening on t-mobile,3 and vodafone (easily seen on their sites), what about orange? are they rollng it out?
(i'm ignoring o2 for obvious reasons)

What is the maximum speeds for the networks? I have seen 7.2 quoted for three, but i am sure i have seen higher quoted on the vodafone network, why is this?

Normal 3g is 3.6mbps isn't it?

What does 3.5g take it up to? and is it standard across all the networks?
Many thanks

Stuart

[Ben]

AFAIK Vodafone are currently the only network actually operating 7.2mbps coverage? They are doing so with HSDPA and HSUPA, meaning better upload speeds, too.

T-Mobile and Three probably have pretty widespread coverage of up to 3.6mbps.

Orange and O2 appear to be having difficulty locating the lightswitch.

I could be completely wrong, but that's my current view!

3.5G is any HSDPA based service, so anything above standard 3G speeds which are 384kbps down.

[miffed]

T-mobile have total 3.5g coverage ( on their 3G network)

o2 had a real stumble at the blocks , but seem to be improving their 3G coverage (got a text recently telling me they had improved coverage in my area

Got Three broadband - not seen a scrap of 3.5g yet - and the average speed (3G) seems to be 120kbps , only occasionally going over :(

Not sure whats going on with Vodafone and Orange's coverage - but one things for sure - they certainly know how to charge for it !!:eek:

[Ben]

Voda's £25/mo Stick with up to 7.2mbps is a pretty attractive proposition, IMHO. They're at 80% 3G now, all (or the vast majority) HSDPA'd to at least 1.8mbps AFAIK. But it's not just you that isn't sure what's going on with Orange, I don't think they know themselves!

[3g-g]

The Orange update is, normal bog standard 384k 3G nearly everywhere, but they do have 3.6mbps HSDPA in a small village just north west of Kent, London I think it's called... oh, and some in Bristol AFAIK, that's about your lot for the moment. Ben's hit the nail on the head, the French do seem to be having issue finding the commutateur léger! :p

[Hands0n]

Generally, Orange, O2 and Vodafone in that order are too expensive to consider (most expensive first). T-Mobile and 3 offer 3GB of data per month for £12.50 and £15 respectively.

Go over your allowance with the first three and expect to heamorrage money at your next invoice. Do so with T-Mobile or 3 and the worst you should expect is a warning or relatively modest charges per MB.

[gorilla]

I can tell you why O2 are so crap in this market. In this months T3 they have a massive ad promoting the fact they are offering adsl up to 20mbps!

[Ben]

It's about time they started doing something with Be, otherwise that'll degenerate into another useless item in their technology portfolio. I hope they continue its rollout, rather than leave it with pathetic coverage.

[stuartturrell]

Orange and vodafone are combining their 3g networks aren't they?
So me being on orange, and having a good orange 3g signal here, when i do stray into a vodafone 3g (when its all done), i will be able to get 7.2mbps shouldn't i?

I do sometimes use my N95 as my broadband connection when my wifi network dies (my adsl only goes to 1.5 on a BT MAX 8mb connection :( ) i live 3-4 miles away from my exchange, so hoping 3g gets faster and cheaper this year :)

[Hands0n]

Two thoughts occur .....

1. ADSL - check your local exchange at Samknows ( http://www.samknows.com/broadband/search.php ) to see if it is LLU enabled with another ISP (i.e. Sky). The LLU operators are using ADSL2+ which will usually give you much better speeds than BT's creaking old ADSL technology. A friend was with BT at 1Mbps at best, he went to Sky (Max) and is now getting just over 6Mbps.

2. 3G/HSDPA - In your context, the problem with Vodafone and Orange is that right now their data tariffs are punitively expensive. You get a meagre 128MB per month because they have decided that you don't really want that much mobile data and that what they offer is quite sufficient for some little web browsing and a few emails each month. I believe that is pretty much a paraphrase to what was actually said by Vodafone at some time last year.

Instead, you should take a serious look at T-Mobile and 3 (who are also going to network-share, and a darned sight quicker than Voda and Orange who are still negotiating after a year!!). With these two you will get upto 3Mbps right now, and their networks are capable of 7.2Mbps but not selling it yet. Their best data tariff right now is 3GB for £12.50 and £15 at T-Mobile and 3 respectively.

Expect 2008 to be the year of Mobile Data - because if they do not get themselves entrenched in the buying public's psyche then they will lose out to the WiMAX operators that are coming on-line this year. They cannot compete on speed (WiMAX at 100Mbps), but if they can just get in first with competitive pricing they'll stand something of a chance.

Exciting times for mobile data... :) Especially so because [finally] the mainstream Tech Journalists have discovered 3G/HSDPA and its affordability in some cases https://talk3g.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4918 :D One wonders why they get paid to do the job that we've been doing amongst ourselves for the past oh I don't know how long :D