Unlimited Data Plans - Connection Speeds

2StepSteve

2StepSteve

2StepSteve

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Joined
24 Apr 2006
Posts
6,439
Location
SE England
With my Vodafone contract up I'm ready to say good bye to Vodafone and their shocking small data allowances and large charges for going over the data limit.

So, I'm on the hunt for decent unlimited data, however things just aren't working out!

4 months ago I tested out Giff Gaff but quickly dismissed that as an option as I was getting consistently below 0.8Mbps. :(

Just came home today after work and thrown in a Three £15 a month unlimited data SIM in my Galaxy Note and...... it's even slower than Giff Gaff. Speed test is showing an average of 0.4Mbps :mad:.

Absolutely ridiculous. Google is taking 7 seconds to load a search. With Vodafone I was able to consistently achieve 3.0Mbps and above!

It leaves me wondering about the network capacity of these networks that are offering unlimited data. Obviously, I need to test other areas but it looks like I am running out of options? Are there any other providers that provide unlimited data?
 
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it depends on the area.. find the coverage map for each provider and see who covers your area the best :) giffgaff(o2) was 3-4 mb here when orange hardly reaches 1mb.. t mobile is around 1.8.. no idea on 3 but ill have to test it out
 
Like grudas said, it heavily depends on your location such as your walls, interference and many other things. I'm using Three with their £15 for all you can eat data, and when I'm at work in Central London, I get anything from 3-5Mbps. According to their coverage check, I should get indoor and outdoor coverage at my home address but unfortunately, I struggle to get even 1 bar. Never seen my speed higher than 1Mbps.

A shame really as I wanted it as a backup plan for tethering when my home WiFi gets overloaded.

My connection with O2 is much better and I reliably get full signal on my iPhone 4S, but I have only 500MB to play with.
 
As others have said, so much down to area (and saturation, I guess ?)

I have a new T-mobile contract SIM which I only have as a backup (best deal for me to get a One X recently) which Speedtest showed 3.8Mbps down recently, and my everyday 3 (12-mth Sim-only) gave me a rocking 5.8mbps, per Speedtest...
...but, visiting family out of town sees me lucky to get more than circa 800kbps on either
 
That was a Note using GG, in an Ace using 3 payg I got 3301kbpsdwn and 324kbps up, so is it down to the phones as well as network or just network?
 
1mile down the road I am getting:

http://db.tt/czEkJZmx

I'm going to raise a support call with three about this. There is definitely something wrong with my local transceiver. 1 am last night I was getting same speeds as I mentioned in my first post. My household has 3 users/contracts with Three. All 3 phones are suffering from packet loss.
 
Currently trying out new 3 sim card. I get 6Mbps/3Mbps with Giffgaff and half of that with 3, but 3 seems more responsive/reliable.
 
OP might be in strange area.

Even in the depths of my office building, I'm getting 2.29Mbps/2.02Mbps with 3. Seems to be noticeably faster at home. Torrents download at amazing speeds.
 
With T-Mobile and getting 3.7/500k which is **** as it used to be 6+ I think its went down since I changed plans.

Would phone them but 3.7Mb is fine for me.
 
Saturation is definitely a massive problem with 3. You can tell this because the speeds fluctuate massively throughout the day. Try it at like 5am and I bet you'd get fast speeds.

I remember making a post in this thread when I left

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18382585&highlight=username_anyon

Quite simply people are obviously just using the unlimited plans for bittorrent and stuff killing the connection for mobile users.

I got the One Plan pretty much the day it came out and I experienced severe deterioration in residential areas.
 
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