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Three 4G broadband stats

Hi,
I'm currently experiencing problems with home broadband(we have EE, but it's not on my name!) and since I wanted to get a new phone I looked at Three's 4G. It has all-you-can-eat-date package, so I was wondering how good is it?
I've read older posts on the internet, but not sure how good it is now. So need help from people using it :)

So few questions:
1. What is a realistic speed in a good area?
2. What's the lowest throttled speed?
3. What is the latency in the evening? I want to be able to use it for gaming on some days!
4. What's the maximum you can really download per month?

Thanks!
 
Three's 4G (its not technically 4G it's LTE which is infact 3G) has not been released yet. they start in december. however they have a dc-hsdpa network in which a lot of people often get 20Mbps +
 
The AYCE package is for mobiles as opposed to dongles.

You can tether a mobile to a PC to use it like this, some mobiles even have apps which can turn the mobile into a Wi-Fi hotspot.

That's not really a replacement for "home broadband" though not least because the mobile won't give as strong a Wi-Fi signal as a proper router will and you need to position the modem carefully for best results e.g. near an upstairs window. So arguably you'd need a "spare mobile" for that which would always need to be charging. You can't really answer a call on it if you're hanging it out of the window to get a good signal.

The setup which works best is a dongle and a router. This then does replace "landline broadband" providing an "always on" connection piped around the house plus it also has ethernet ports etc. Or a combined box, but the only one on the market at the moment costs £249 (Huawei B593).

Three are only just rolling out 4G now. Their network is actually what they call 3.9G "ultrafast" which is AKA "dual channel HSPA" or "DCHSPA". It's not the same thing. It's more like "fast 3G".

To answer your questions:

1. For DC-HSPA: between 15Meg and 25Meg downstream and 3Meg and 4Meg upstream. For 4G, I'd suggest upwards of 30Mbps downstream.

2. There is no "lowest speed" as such - all depends on how many use it. Three 3G DCHSPA here manages between 12Meg and 21Meg down and 3Meg to 4Meg up just about all the time (E3256 DC-HSPA dongle). That's because it's a rural area and not many use it (clearly, for it to attain those speeds, the maximum is 42Mbps down 5.7Mbps up). The same equipment in an urban area even right next to the mobile tower might struggle to attain more than 2Mbps downstream. It also tends to slow down a bit when the kids are off school. Finally, AFAIK, Three throttle certain types of traffic such as P2P down to levels at which it is almost useless. On the other hand, we can use it to stream HD TV here.

3. Latency on a good DCHSPA connection will be somewhere between 30ms and 45ms - by that I mean strong signal and little contention. It does however have a fair amount of "jitter" and can spike e.g. a ping bbc.co.uk -t will return 30 to 40ms most of the time with occasional upward spikes. An antenna helps with signal and with latency as does being near to the cell. You can find your local one at http://sitefinder.ofcom.org.uk. Personally I'd have thought it would frustrate gamers. 4G is better, but this is only at the rollout stages. We have EE 4G and even with a moderate signal latency is more in the realms of 20 to 35ms.

4. With a dongle, whatever the package limit is e.g. 10GB/mo. With a mobile tethered to the network AFAIK it is unlimited, but it is unlikely to attain the same top speeds as a dongle/router combination and may have slightly different throttling because it is not designed for use as a "home broadband" connection. In case you wondered, no, you can't put an AYCE SIM card into a dongle, Three actively detect this and block the SIM.

At best, 3G is more than capable of walking all over ADSL for speed in both directions unless you live right next to the exchange.

Also at best, 4G is comparable with VDSL "Fibre to the Cabinet" and more capable upstream (see speed test just below, that's with only a 2 or 3 bar signal).

Most especially so in a lightly populated area with few using it. In a built up area with hundreds of phones connected to either, getting those sorts of speeds on a regular basis might be a pipe dream. And unlike a good FTTC connection with a good ISP where you might expect the same sorts of speeds all the time, both 3G and 4G are very variable and unpredictable.

However if you want to use a lot of data and have quick speeds, 3G and 4G are probably not best advised.

Would always suggest trying on PAYG first before committing because the overall summary is that you can't know until you try it.
 
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wow,
that's really useful info!
so the best I would be getting now is 3G DCHSPA? It's not too bad.
I know it won't replace proper broadband, but becuse I'm stuck at the moment even 50-70ms in the evening would do fine for me at the moment. Then I'll move in few months and can look for a place with good Virgin/Sky broadband.

I know it's a separate question, but maybe you know how good is "Fixed Wireless Access" ?

Thanks a lot!:)
 
FWA has better provision of bandwidth e.g. the transmitter *might* have 300Meg on tap not 42Meg (DCHSPA) or 100Meg+ (4G).

However the same applies - depends how many are sharing it.

Broadly speaking I'd expect FWA to outperform DCHSPA and it *should* outperform 4G but there are too many unknown variables, so again it's a bit of "try it and see".
 
I think a bigger problem with FWA is that you're unlikely to be covered by any of the operators. We have a list of the ISPs under our 'ISP List' section for you to check and rough coverage is stated but you tend to find that most of them are quite niche so I wouldn't bank on being within range of one.
 
Fari enough!
thanks again for help:)
I think the best option is to try a find a place with Fibre internet and save myself the headache:P
 
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Rules for moving house:

1. Find the exact address you're looking to move to. Knowing "the area" or "the street" isn't enough.
2. Put the postcode into the Virgin media website. If it says it's not a cabled area, abandon, find somewhere else and go back to step 1.
3. If it asks you to select the address from the list, and the address is in the list, proceed. If it's a bit unsure, proceed with caution.
4. Put the address (not just the postcode) into the BT Wholesale checker and make sure it comes back that FTTC is available *now*. If it says it isn't, or gives a future date, abandon, find somewhere else and go back to step 1.
5. Assuming that it is, see if the speeds suffice. Now put the postcode into the coverage checker on the Three and EE websites and see what they come back with - you want good/indoor coverage. If you have both VM and FTTC available, this is just a fall-back.

This probably narrows the list of addresses to about 35% of the UK. If you have to compromise, and VM is available but not BT FTTC then check the VM online forum for complaints in that area (oversubscription). If only FTTC is available, ask the current tenant/landlord/owner what speed it performs at. If they don't have it, and you're looking to buy, make that conditional on them signing up for it and then see how quick it actually is, not what the checker estimated. You might have to bung them a hundred quid or so for this, but it's worth it.

If all else fails, and you really like the place, there might be other options. Check this site for the listings for FWA and FTTP (e.g. Hyperoptic or B4RN which are as good as it gets in the UK but very limited in availability which is the only reason I list these last). Consider whether you would pay for 4G. Costs will come down, but it will cost us circa £100/mo for what we use. If you want somewhere rural, you'll need to take this into account.
 
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