Appalling 3g Phone Speeds In Central London

[chrisdack]

Hi, i have htc magic, and with 4 bars insight of masts in canary wharf, city airport, or in central london i have NEVER achieved more than 400 kb/s and normally around 200 to 300kb/s, ( and often 30kb/s ). So about 1 / 10 to 1 / 100 advertised speed.
Ideas please? am i being throttled?

Thanks Chris

[Retired-Daz_V]

Hi Chrisdack,

I can confirm that you're not being throttled!

Your connection speed will be affected by user traffic primarily, and in busy locations such as those you listed, this is unavoidable. Also, you'll only ever be connected to one mast at a time, so multiple masts will not improve speed - 300-400 kilobits (not kilobytes) a second is 'low' average of 3G, but as you state, is unusual in your areas. Have you tried a hard reset (pop the battery out whilst the phone is 'on')? This will help 'jog' your data connection and may help connect at a faster speed. Other than this, to check a device fault, have you tried your SIM in another 3G+ (HSDPA) enabled mobile in the same area?

We couldn't really raise this as a fault as such, but I'll certainly keep my eye on things. How long has this been going on for you? Keep me updated with details!




Daz

eForum Team


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[chrisdack]

Hi Chrisdack,

I can confirm that you're not being throttled!

300-400 kilobits (not kilobytes) a second is 'low' average of 3G, but as you state, is unusual in your areas. Have you tried a hard reset (pop the battery out whilst the phone is 'on')? This will help 'jog' your data connection and may help connect at a faster speed.

Hi. 4 bars not 4 masts. Kb/s bein% kilobytes per sec which is still low as though 3g and 3g+ is measured in Mb/s, not K.
Reboot phone with power off quite regularly (weekly) and no real diffs.
Just wonder if london has capacity issues?
Will take my other 3g phone, but not smart so no apps to check download speed, will research options..

[chrisdack]

of 3G, but as you state, is unusual in your areas. Have you tried a hard reset (pop the battery out whilst the phone is 'on')? This will help 'jog' your data connection and may help connect at a faster speed. Other than this, to check a device fault, have you tried your SIM in another 3G+ (HSDPA) enabled mobile in the same area?

Hi.
4 bars, not masts. I.e. good signal.
Also kb/s being kilobytes per second; i edited my earlier post. But thought 3g and 3g+ is measured in Mb/s, so still very slow.
Lastly, wife has same issues on same phone, different sim and we both reboot weekly. Any hrlo?
Is london having capacity issues?

Thanks again
Chris

[malcolmb1963]

Lunchtime in the City of London is chronic trying to connect with my Storm. I think the network is basically overloaded with traffic.

Would REALLY hate to be trying to use Find & Go under those conditions. I did find what seemed to be a "workaround" with Find & Go (out of interest) - forcing to 2G only (GPRS) seemed to increase the chances of making a server connection and being able to use the app.

[Retired-Martin]

Hi Chrisdack

Daz is correct in saying that at peak times the speed will be effected, this is the same for the speed of my home broadband.

A good thing to do is to get a new SIM card as if you have got an old SIM this could have an effect.

Forcing 2g is a good idea as less people will be using this now

Please let us know how you get on with this

Martin
eForum Team

[chrisdack]

Hi Chrisdack

Daz is correct in saying that at peak times the speed will be effected, this is the same for the speed of my home broadband.

A good thing to do is to get a new SIM card as if you have got an old SIM this could have an effect.

Forcing 2g is a good idea as less people will be using this now

Please let us know how you get on with this

Martin
eForum Team

achieved an acceptable baseline. My tests in same places showed 1.5 meg dl this morning. and 500 kbps few times just now with ul more like my prev max dl. i.e. good
what did i do? I installed speed enhancing config to enable hsdpa class 8 / hsupa class 5 network, which is not enabled by default on htc magic even though vodafone started rollout of 3g+ year or so ago for dongles. latency still sucks but at least peak speeds more respectae, though short of the 7.2 meg max.
yum.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread...5291&page=2