Mobile broadband - prepaid pp.internet problem

[dimitris]

Hi,
I have a prepaid (non-expiring) SIM card on my MiFi and it has been working fine for over a year.
I am now in central London (Paddington and Oxford Circus) and the connection is painfully slow, almost unusable.

I measured the performance and the DL is about 700kbps (ok) but UL is 0.1kbps (!).
I am using
APN: pp.internet
Username: web
Password: web

Is there something wrong or am I doing something wrong? The MiFi works well in networks abroad so I don't think it's the hardware.

Many thanks,
Dimitris.

[jarviser]

I would say 2 things.

First try a few speed test sites - they don't all kick in the full speed on mobile upload tests. If you have a file to actually upload like a pic to flickr, monitor that speed.

Secondly, although I have never experienced it with Voda, my previous tango-coloured ISP told me that if there's a mast out in the area, people automatically pick up and over-load alternative masts. So they "prioritise" traffic to firstly Voice for emergencies, then if there's enough bandwidth they allow download, and lowest priority of all to upload. May be a mast out. Call 191.

[dimitris]

I would say 2 things.

First try a few speed test sites - they don't all kick in the full speed on mobile upload tests. If you have a file to actually upload like a pic to flickr, monitor that speed.

Secondly, although I have never experienced it with Voda, my previous tango-coloured ISP told me that if there's a mast out in the area, people automatically pick up and over-load alternative masts. So they "prioritise" traffic to firstly Voice for emergencies, then if there's enough bandwidth they allow download, and lowest priority of all to upload. May be a mast out. Call 191.

Can't be about base stations being down because I have had this problem in two different areas, at different times during the day.
Uploading to flickr would be very painful, HTTP requests don't even upload.

[Retired-George]

Hi dimitris,

Thank you for posting. The prepaid mobile broadband was never really designed with Mi-Fi in mind so I'm a little limited as to what assistance I can offer here. Do you notice any issues with your SIM in the modem that came with it at all? Are you able to browse web-pages without any problems?

George
eForum Team

[dimitris]

Hi George,
I don't have the original USB dongle with me but I don't think it should make a difference. I have been using the MiFi with prepaid SIM cards around Europe and I have never had this much of a problem.

However, I am now more inclined that the cells I am in are congested. I have connected very early in the morning in Paddington station and performance is quite good.

Is this similar to what everyone else experiences?

Dimitris.

[jarviser]

Hi George,
I don't have the original USB dongle with me but I don't think it should make a difference. I have been using the MiFi with prepaid SIM cards around Europe and I have never had this much of a problem.

However, I am now more inclined that the cells I am in are congested. I have connected very early in the morning in Paddington station and performance is quite good.

Is this similar to what everyone else experiences?

Dimitris.

I only connected to Vodafone once in London (Bloomsbury on a Saturday) and I got 3.2 mbps

I usually use a Netgear MBR624GU router (equivalent to a mains-powered mifi) to connect and the performance is no different to using the dongle directly, provided the mifi is set up to use the correct APN for your package and dial number of course. I assume the mifi is an unlocked one.