Gprs

[Skyblue]

Is anybody else finding Orange GPRS pretty slow lately? (Patchy 3g coverage where I am). Can take on average a minute to load a page at times, other times I'll have to actually give up! Reminds me a bit of my old O2 days...!

I was wondering whether it's got anything to do with the PAYG free GPRS access clogging the network.

Or maybe I just need a better handset!

[Gunner]

Mhmm when I've got dodgy 3G signal my GPRS goes backwards. I don't think it's any worse than it has been previously though. I find Orange World can be particularly slow at times and so often skip straight out to the BBC Mobile site which is a lot faster!

I was being driven around the other day and one thing I did notice is how good Orange have managed to get the data handovers now. Yes, there were pauses, especially when 3G signal ran out and the phone had to find 2G, but the connection never dropped. I must have made ten or so 3G-2G (etc) transitions during the connection, and switched between countless masts. Speed was very very variable depending on signal strength though - in good 3G signal it was lightening quick, even with low latency, while in poor 3G signal things took ages. When in 2G mode the connection seemed much more reliable regardless of signal strength.

I think Orange would benefit from setting their 3G handsets/3G masts to stay on 2G unless really good 3G signal is available. Ideally there could be a user-setting on the handset which allows us to specify at which point we want to be handed over to 3G.

One other observation is that the Z1010 does sometimes lose signal completely when moving from 3G to 2G. It just has no bars for a few seconds, sometimes up to around 30 seconds, before changing mode to 2G. I can't really say if this is actually handset or network - have you noticed this on your handset?

[Dave G]

mine was really bad last night, it wouldn't finish downloading anything properly (had two bars signal strength) this morning at work where coverage is much better everything seems to be good again

[hotphil]

Snow a factor?

[User Has Gone]

Is anybody else finding Orange GPRS pretty slow lately? (Patchy 3g coverage where I am). Can take on average a minute to load a page at times, other times I'll have to actually give up! Reminds me a bit of my old O2 days...!

I was wondering whether it's got anything to do with the PAYG free GPRS access clogging the network.

Or maybe I just need a better handset!

Could be PAYG taking the GPRS timeslots... What area do you live in? (rural, suburbs, city) and at what time is it slow, morning? evening? weekend?

[Skyblue]

I'min an urban area (north Warwickshire) and has been as slow over in Brum. A lot better today but I was in 3g coverage then. It can take a bot longer still when trying to find 3g. Just tried it again now on 2.5g and working quicker for now, hope it holds out!
I'll have to experiment a bit more over the next few days and see how it's doing.
Hopefully they'll boost their 3g coverage here (says full on the Orange map!) sometime soon.

[User Has Gone]

I'min an urban area (north Warwickshire) and has been as slow over in Brum. A lot better today but I was in 3g coverage then. It can take a bot longer still when trying to find 3g. Just tried it again now on 2.5g and working quicker for now, hope it holds out!
I'll have to experiment a bit more over the next few days and see how it's doing.
Hopefully they'll boost their 3g coverage here (says full on the Orange map!) sometime soon.

If you're near Brum I'd imagine that it'll expand towards you, there'll be a lot of commuters that'll still want to use 3G services on journeys home etc. Let us know how it goes over the next few days, if there's anything I can help with network wise I'll try my hardest.

[Gunner]

Are you able to help with network queries over the whole UK 3g-glasgow? If you're able to help with some questions in my locality in Kent then it'd be great if you could drop me an email (address on blog). I'd be interested to learn more about the local mast problem I mentioned and any projected 3G coverage plans in the area.

[Skyblue]

I'm in Bedworth (cv120bn), dark Orange on the map but the whole town, and Nuneaton, are very patchy. Now over in Hinckley and Coventry it's great coverage - hope it will be like that here eventually!

[fdxd]

Yeah the connection has been absolute hassle for me. Constant disconnections and even some phone restarts.

[User Has Gone]

Yeah the connection has been absolute hassle for me. Constant disconnections and even some phone restarts.

That sounds more like a handset problem rather than a network one...

[fdxd]

That sounds more like a handset problem rather than a network one...

Well i phoned and they say the restarts are normal. Browsing is good in most places. I prefer browsing on moving trains than my home due to unstable signal in my home. It can be either full 3G or it reverts to 2G randomly.

[hotphil]

Restarts may be "normal" but they're not right. The phone shouldn't crash as often as it does. It's upsetting when you get to the high-twenties levels on Frozen Bubble and the screen just whites out and the handset restarts!