Hands0n
9th March 2008, 10:08 PM
Elsewhere I have written about my latest acquisition, namely a Vodafone USB Stick on their £15/3GB 18-month contract. Very nice it is too, especially as it is HSDPA/HSUPA compliant. HSUPA, in case you have been living in a cave these last few years, is High Speed Uplink Packet Access, the speed at which you are able to send data from your device up and into the Internet.
Over the past 24 hours I set to wondering about the actual speeds attainable, especially as in Speedtests (http://www.speedtest.net) that I have run the downlink has run at just over 1Mbps which is quite respectable. But it is a long way short of 7.2Mbps. So what gives?
Looking at the Vodafone Coverage Maps (http://maps.vodafone.co.uk/coverageviewer/web/default.aspx) starts to reveal a few things. There, the page declares "3G Broadband 1.8Mbps peak data rate". So where is this 7.2Mbps stuff then?
A trip over to Vodafone's main website where the Broadband proposition is discussed it becomes clearer ...
Mobile Broadband 7.2Mbps
During October to December 2007, we will be upgrading our Mobile Broadband network to support download speeds up to 7.2Mbps offering typical speeds of 1.7 - 5.5Mbps. This will allow you to download a 5MB file in 7 seconds 14 times faster than using 3G. Were also increasing upload speeds up to 1.44Mbps (HSUPA) 10 times faster than 3G.
Our 7.2Mbps service will be available in the following locations:
London districts:
* E1, E1W, E14
* EC1, EC2, EC3, EC4
* NW1, SW1
* W1, W2, W8, W9, W10, W11, W14
* WC1, WC2
Airports:
* Heathrow
* Gatwick
* Luton
* Stansted
* London City
* Southampton
* Bristol
* Birmingham
* East Midlands
* Liverpool
* Manchester
* Belfast City
* Belfast Int.
* Cardiff
* Norwich
Mobile Broadband 1.8Mbps
We are leading the way with Mobile Broadband. In June 2006, Vodafone was the first UK operator to launch a HSDPA service, which provides data rates of up to 1.8Mbps offering typical speeds of 0.8 1.3Mbps. This allows you to download at speeds up to 4 times faster than 3G.
You can view Mobile Broadband coverage by selecting the 'mobile data' map, then clicking on '3G broadband'.
So there you have it. Outside of those London postal districts and airports the rest of the nation will be limited to 1.8Mbps. And by my own samples the reality seems to be a pretty close match to the speculated figure.
It is interesting to note that Vodafone have switched on their HSUPA to 1.44Mbps where they are operating HSDPA. This is so much faster than ADSL uplink speeds. But not yet available nationally.
It is interesting and exciting to see Mobile Broadband match and even exceed ADSL in the UK (very few people actually get the 16Mbps or 24Mbps theoretical max of ADSL2+, the norm is often way short of that). Looking at recent reports of USB dongle sales (https://talk3g.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5180) (18,000 in a week!) the buying public have awoken with a vengeance.
Long have we predicted this here on Talk3G, so it is particularly gratifying to see our thoughts bear out. The ready markets are those denied by traditional ADSL technologies, these being the Students and Flatdwellers who regularly move about. The more geeky types (like me :D) who buy into technology as a form of entertainment as well as practical use are a tiny minority. We alone are insufficient for the mobile operators. So, I contend, are the traditionally niche business markets.
In a former life I used to work for a large banking corporation and with all of our £billions we rationed out the mobile data connections like they were Unicorn eggs. It was just too damned expensive, even with Vodafone's corporate business rates. Fast forward to 2008 and even the likes of Vodafone seem to be finally getting it that they really can sell their precious data product for a commodity rate and make even more than before by capturing possibly half of the nation UK. This year will be recorded in history as the year that mobile broadband took off. And it has been ever such a long time coming.
With any luck, during 2008 Vodfone will continue to deploy their 7.2Mbps HSDPA/HSUPA into the national network. The business is out there, just waiting for the mobile network operators to come up with the goods.
Over the past 24 hours I set to wondering about the actual speeds attainable, especially as in Speedtests (http://www.speedtest.net) that I have run the downlink has run at just over 1Mbps which is quite respectable. But it is a long way short of 7.2Mbps. So what gives?
Looking at the Vodafone Coverage Maps (http://maps.vodafone.co.uk/coverageviewer/web/default.aspx) starts to reveal a few things. There, the page declares "3G Broadband 1.8Mbps peak data rate". So where is this 7.2Mbps stuff then?
A trip over to Vodafone's main website where the Broadband proposition is discussed it becomes clearer ...
Mobile Broadband 7.2Mbps
During October to December 2007, we will be upgrading our Mobile Broadband network to support download speeds up to 7.2Mbps offering typical speeds of 1.7 - 5.5Mbps. This will allow you to download a 5MB file in 7 seconds 14 times faster than using 3G. Were also increasing upload speeds up to 1.44Mbps (HSUPA) 10 times faster than 3G.
Our 7.2Mbps service will be available in the following locations:
London districts:
* E1, E1W, E14
* EC1, EC2, EC3, EC4
* NW1, SW1
* W1, W2, W8, W9, W10, W11, W14
* WC1, WC2
Airports:
* Heathrow
* Gatwick
* Luton
* Stansted
* London City
* Southampton
* Bristol
* Birmingham
* East Midlands
* Liverpool
* Manchester
* Belfast City
* Belfast Int.
* Cardiff
* Norwich
Mobile Broadband 1.8Mbps
We are leading the way with Mobile Broadband. In June 2006, Vodafone was the first UK operator to launch a HSDPA service, which provides data rates of up to 1.8Mbps offering typical speeds of 0.8 1.3Mbps. This allows you to download at speeds up to 4 times faster than 3G.
You can view Mobile Broadband coverage by selecting the 'mobile data' map, then clicking on '3G broadband'.
So there you have it. Outside of those London postal districts and airports the rest of the nation will be limited to 1.8Mbps. And by my own samples the reality seems to be a pretty close match to the speculated figure.
It is interesting to note that Vodafone have switched on their HSUPA to 1.44Mbps where they are operating HSDPA. This is so much faster than ADSL uplink speeds. But not yet available nationally.
It is interesting and exciting to see Mobile Broadband match and even exceed ADSL in the UK (very few people actually get the 16Mbps or 24Mbps theoretical max of ADSL2+, the norm is often way short of that). Looking at recent reports of USB dongle sales (https://talk3g.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5180) (18,000 in a week!) the buying public have awoken with a vengeance.
Long have we predicted this here on Talk3G, so it is particularly gratifying to see our thoughts bear out. The ready markets are those denied by traditional ADSL technologies, these being the Students and Flatdwellers who regularly move about. The more geeky types (like me :D) who buy into technology as a form of entertainment as well as practical use are a tiny minority. We alone are insufficient for the mobile operators. So, I contend, are the traditionally niche business markets.
In a former life I used to work for a large banking corporation and with all of our £billions we rationed out the mobile data connections like they were Unicorn eggs. It was just too damned expensive, even with Vodafone's corporate business rates. Fast forward to 2008 and even the likes of Vodafone seem to be finally getting it that they really can sell their precious data product for a commodity rate and make even more than before by capturing possibly half of the nation UK. This year will be recorded in history as the year that mobile broadband took off. And it has been ever such a long time coming.
With any luck, during 2008 Vodfone will continue to deploy their 7.2Mbps HSDPA/HSUPA into the national network. The business is out there, just waiting for the mobile network operators to come up with the goods.