SlOoooooow 3G/GPRS

[apyc2]

I got mine yesterday in oxford. Terribly slack phone trainer who had a 'couldn't care less' attitude, but I had to use him because I had waited for 20 minutes already.

contract took 2 hours to come through

coverage is pathchy in oxford, 115.2 in the centre of town

installation was a challenge. they claim it's 5 minutes, easy as 1-2-3. in fact I agonized for 3 hour trying to work out why the card wasn't being picked up by the mobile office programme despite it being automatically recognized and installed as a standard PCMCIA modem by XP, as per instructions

turned out I needed to go and select specifically the NOVATEL MERLIN U530 card in the list of drivers to get it working.

the speed is quite shockingly slow - on GPRS at least, since my flat is not under 3G coverage, like most of oxford. it's crawling along!!!!! as if I'm using a 28.8 connection. For some reason my pop mail downloads at a snail's pace - maybe 5bytes/sec!!!!!!!

the 3G to GPRS transition is good, not a glitch.

no software crashes so far

easy connection to the internet

going to try it out along the M40 and in London and northampton before I make a decision on whether to keep or return.

cost £45 +vat and £100 for card, unlimited data

[Gunner]

Excellent info, thanks :D

Can't imagine why your GPRS is underperforming. I have to say, GPRS is slow, but it shouldn't be too much slower than dialup.

Their 3G speed still hasn't peaked either I see. It's bad that they've not mentioned this as T-Mobile have.

Glad to hear the 3G-GPRS transition is seamless - fingers crossed for voice being as good!

[apyc2]

the process really is appallingly slow. Am I doing something wrong? The little flashing icon in the system tray reads 115.2kbps. the orange desktop programme reads a peak of maybe 40kbps and an average of 20-25kbps.

I think it's the coverage. people on orange in my block tend to need to lean out of the window to speak clearly. let's see what it does in central london

[apyc2]

here we go - was on the bus on the M40 today and it was not so good. quite a few switches between GPRS and 3G and I think the handshake wasn't too good. the connection kept dropping between base stations.

3G on the outskirts of oxford is impressive though - 150kbps +

Here in central london, I get a good 3G signal, but only around 90kbps. still feels slower than a good dialup connection......

[Gunner]

Might be worth contacting Orange.

GPRS will report 115.2kbps, but only work at ~40kbps. 3G should give the full ~384kbps.

I'd imagine Orange will tell you that the speed on their 3G network will increase over the coming months. You might want to remind them that you wern't informed of any speed restriction at launch, mumble something about Vodafone, and see if they're prepared to help you out or give you a discount.

[apyc2]

160kbps in canary wharf (hmmmm.....let's guess why? =P). I'm impressed enough with a service at 160 kbps already. I can only imagine how good 384 would feel..........I think currently the slowness is in the up stream sending the request to the internet. The actual download speed is quite reasonable, even at 80kbps.

[Gunner]

Yeah, upstream is significantly less anyway, 64kbps I think - can't remember though.

So if there is an equal reduction in upload and download speeds at the moment, the uplink would suffer far more.

[apyc2]

Tested in Northampton today. speeds are about 130kbps, with the occasional spike to 250kbps. Still feels a bit slow.

The GPRS/3G handshake here is good. sometimes it jumps to GPRS and one has simply to reload the page one was in the process of downloading when the handover occured. No disconnection like in central London. I have pretty much decided that it's going back in a week or two, pending cheaper prices and a better service.

[JOBBED]

Impressed myself, GPRS is faster than I thought, getting 7kb file downloads.
3G here at the beach by Southport works fine, file downloads up to 37kb best I saw.

Real bummer is the counter resests everytime, Orange have said they will fix this....yeah right.

My Sharp laptop has no CD drive, so just copied whole disc onto an MMC card and it loaded from the usb reader no probs.

Another nice feature, put the sim card in my unlocked XDA and accessed the mobile net , with usage coming off the 3G account....sweet :)

Tested GPRS only around Wales, getting good downloads even in fringe areas, though it was taking around 2mins to grab the network.

Overall very happy, but data bundle must go up for your money.

[Guest]

apyc2

whereabouts in oxford are you? i want to try out other networks 3g coverage i seem to be getting quite good 3g on 3 in oxford maybe orange has just not updated the mast yet. I would assume that oxford would not be very near the top of the list

andy.

[apyc2]

central oxford has appalling voice coverage by many networks, let alone 3G. As you get out of town, it gets alot better. The villages outside oxford probably do much better, like in thame where you are located.

[apyc2]

I complained to orange big time about the poor handshake between 3g and gprs and the coverage in my area. I haven't received a reply yet, but they've done something to the local network because I've just been downloading at..........360kbps!!!!!! quite stunningly fast. Still it jumps back to GPRS after a little bit =(....why can't it just stay on the blue light!!!?!?!

[JOBBED]

Stuck the 3G sim in my 6230, just to surf WAP and some HTML, but you surf HTML via WAP anyway from the phone, anyways it was goddam slow, I mean REALLY slow.

A single WAP page was taking 30 seconds to download, reset, tried again still the same.
An O2 sim card in the same phone was lightning fast, same page took about 5 seconds, these results were repeated time after time.
I doesn't seem that bad when surfing on the Laptop using GPRS.
Maybe the network is conflicting, don't know, but if I go direct to the BBC news via the 6230's xhtml broswer it's still painfully slow.

And the funny thing, my O2 pay-go card is still totally free for GPRS.
Downloaded 200mb on this phone alone, not a penny charge.

[apyc2]

I bought a CF to PCMCIA adapter in anticipation of an OQO or vaio U50 purchase to use my 3G card with.......tried it with my laptop and lo and behold, it reliably gives me a 3G signal now, even buried deep in a building. I wonder if it's interference from the computer components itself that caused my problems earlier.

[Gunner]

Hmm interesting. Does your notebook have Centrino wireless and/or other integrated wireless device(s)?

[orange3gdata]

apyc2 : oqo is vaporware, so don't hold your breath. Was reading about this thing back in 1998. It resurfaces every two years or so with some promise that 'this time, it' for real'.

They even have guys posting in forums saying they tried it at some electronics show, etc. Those scammers should be in jail IMHO.

Cheers,

O3GData

[JOBBED]

http://www.gizmodo.com/archives/oqo-price-and-release-date-022073.php

With regards to PC interference I was trying to connect via 3G, the laptop was on top of a switched on PC, just wouldn't connect, moved it on to the desk and connected straight away.
Considering the use of the card and the patchiness of the signal, there should be a much better real time signal meter, you know like the one in a 40 quid cellphone.

[orange3gdata]

Yup had seen the link. Still don't believe it. Actually, I think that even if you put one in my hand I still would not believe it exists... This thing goes waaaaay back.. not 2002 like some sources have mentionned.

Cheers,

03G

[apyc2]

!!!!! still too late, too expensive....u50 here I come