It's worth looking at a picture of how the WiBE conducted its own internal antenna tests to find the best antenna for download performance. This clearly echoes' the results of our own tests on the previous page; it consistently picked the 'RIGHT' of its four antennas as the best (see admin control panel picture below).
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Our tests here took ISPreview.co.uk to a remote rural house on the edges of most mobile operators 3G coverage where we have, very occasionally, been able to connect with a single bar of basic 3G (slower than 3G+ HSPA) reception on our Vodafone dongle. The best we can usually achieve is a full signal GPRS (2G) connection. It's worth pointing out that this location currently receives broadband via a 0.5Mbps (512Kbps) fixed line ADSL connection, so anything faster than that would be a bonus. The laptop and WiBE were positioned near an upstairs window to give them the best possible chance, although we also conducted some testing downstairs.
As you can see our Vodafone dongle, despite being positioned slightly higher than the WiBE and near a window with good visibility, only managed the best that a slow GPRS connection has to offer. By contrast the WiBE surprised us by being able to connect with not just 3G but also 3G+ (HSPA) and deliver a fairly stable download speed of 1.2Mbps. That's roughly in line with the national average for most Mobile Broadband connections. Furthermore we were even able to establish an almost identical speed by positioning the WiBE in front of a downstairs window; even GPRS reception would normally struggle here, often failing completely. In the past we have attempted to gain an improved Mobile Broadband performance by using a higher gain antenna but had no luck, which makes this feat especially impressive.
It should be clear from our tests that the WiBE, unlike the vast majority of Mobile Broadband signal boosters, actually does what it says on the tin. Moreover it does this in a practical way, one that won't require you to bolt anything to the roof of your house or perform some kind of crazy D.I.Y solution.
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