Hi,
I don't think that Vodafone throttle data speeds.
They do optimise web traffic for mobile connections, though, which might affect the picture quality.
As an initial thought it might be worth connecting over WiFi (thus eliminating the mobile netowkr from your set up), and seeing if the picture quality improves. If it doesn't then the picture quality i unlikely to be related to the speed the mobile network is serving you with.
At a guess, the Sky Go probably takes note of your connection speed and then gives you the best resolution it can without there being buffering or lag. In all honesty there's not much that you can do to to increase this, other than ensure that no other applications or processes are running on the device you're using. How you do this is dependent on the device, but if you give us an idea of what you're using we might be able to advise.
There are also various factors that will affect the connection speed that you receive. These include:
- Your signal strength
- The amount of other people connected to the cell you'r eusing and how mch data traffic they're parsing
- The bearer in use (2G/3G)
- If there are any other applicaiton s running on the device that ar eusing bandwidth
Generally the mobile network will serve you with the best connection it can. This is all handled by the network itself based on the variables mentioned above.
Another thing to take into account is that mobile networks are quite latent compared to the likes of ADSL. This is because of the amount of "hops" between your device and the service you're connecting to being greater in number than when using something like ADSL. This is to do with the number of components between your device and the sky service being more than on an ADSL network. The thing is that the mobile network needs to have these component present to do things like supporting handover and mobility.
With regard to your question: what data speed do i need to be able to get the best picture quality?
The best people to answer this question would be Sky temselves. {It might be worth running a speed test prior to speaking to them so that you can tell them what speed you're actually getting.
In all honesty, once you've ruled out the device and background applciations, there's not a lot you can do to increase the speed, other than move to a 4G tarriff. If you do choose this option bear in mind that your 4G signal/coverage is dependent on 4G being rolled out in the area you're using your mobile device.
I hope that at least helps explain the situation a little.
Cheers
HC
