OK, story so far. We picked up some tweets from the T-Mobile UK Help Team stating that “Full Monty Tariffs have a max speed of 1MB/s”. A day later, and T-Mobile told us that this was a mistake, but still we were getting sent phone calls where customers were being told pretty much the same thing. OK, it was probably an honest mistake. Perhaps some incorrect info on the internal systems that got regurgitated by staff.
However, we decided to do some “quick ‘n dirty” speed tests with other networks, just to see what would happen. This revealed possible capping or “traffic shaping”.
Dale Kilborn started the whole discussion about a strangely-named “GPRS Premium” package on Digital Spy. This add-on, it is said, lifts the “2Mb/s cap” we apparently saw on Orange yesterday. GPRS Premium is included in iPhone packages and, when I recently asked for it to be added onto my package (I don’t have an iPhone), I was told that it wasn’t possible.
Meanwhile, back to the T-Mobile Full Monty Plan. Again, we must reiterate the fact that T-Mobile now tell us..
Full Monty plans do NOT have a max speed of 1MB/s. We give all our customers the best possible speeds
Andy Murray is enjoying his Full Monty plan, and has sent us his Speedtest.net results. They all show a download no higher than 0.93Mb/s. Make of that what you will…
Update – James is on a ”normal” T-Mobile plan (not a Full Monty tariff) and has sent us his results. They’re similar to the tests we did on Orange and, once again, never go beyond 2Mb/s.
Update 2 – A rather interesting comment popped up below from Beaker656. It reads..
Not so much to do with “The Full Monty” but I upgraded to a SGS2 in December and, on my way to work I ran some speed tests and didn’t get anything above 0.94Mbps download.
Got to work, rang T-Mo and told them that I got a quicker speed before the upgrade. They apologised saying “We don’t know how your download rate has been reduced, but we’ll put it to where it was before the upgrade”. Within seconds I was back to 1.89Mbps. They have tiered download rates, the more you pay the more you get and it’s a simple mouse click away for them. The thing is the average customer doesn’t know so they never ask.
The sad thing is, T-Mo and 3UK use the same 3G network, yet T-Mo cap you, 3UK don’t. Makes 3UK look very tempting.
Credit – Andy Murray – Dale Kilborn – James Pearce – Beaker656
Am quite sure the masts have a connection of atleast 100Mbps. As from my understanding the mast end there connected to a fibre network or similiar and everything from there is as normal.
The speed caps seem to be Plan-Related. As i can easily get over 2Mbps on my contract but not on my PAYG,
Proof: http://danielmeahld2.livedrive.com/item/c87114a94d8e41e7a3086a9e40651233
“The sad thing is, T-Mo and 3UK use the same 3G network, yet T-Mo cap you, 3UK don’t. Makes 3UK look very tempting.”
This isnt true from my research. You can even check this on ofcom sitefinder.
As I’ve just spent 3 years merging both 3g networks, I think I’d know. Try doing some more “detailed” research
http://www.mbnl.co.uk/
quote – The network consolidation project has resulted in customers of Three UK and T-Mobile enjoying the best 3G coverage in the UK, By combining their 3G access networks (the mobile masts and infrastructure that connects to each operator’s separate core network) Everything Everywhere and Three UK has created Europe’s most extensive high-speed packet access (HSPA) network.
This was the case. But as i said from my research this is not the case..
Please elaborate on your research as it may point out where I’m going wrong.
ofcom sitefinder is not an aid to planning, understanding or evaluating a network. It is only as uptodate as the data the operators submit to it and it is voluntary.
I didnt say you was wrong, i just said this is what i had found from my own research. And there has been times i have had a three signal and not a tmobile one, vice versa.
Ah that explains it far better than cell load, cell breathing, capacity congestion, different operator specific parameters etc or the fact that every site on the the 13,500 plus sites that have been consolidated are 3g for both 3uk and TMUK. I sit with a much clearer view now.
I thank you and good night!
Daniel,
Those speed tests show your transmitter is likely HSDPA only with 3.6 Mbps Download capability with 384 Upload capability.
What you need to take into account is… ALL FOUR of these factors
SIM Profile on HLR (typically set at 2Meg or 8Meg)
Base Station Capability (as discussed below in previous posts)
Handset Capability… Ie Your phone, is it HSUPA? If Yes your base station is slow (no HSPA)
Distance from cell and/or Radio Conditions between your phone and base station.
Operators can limit MAX data on your SIM PROFILE. Customer services can EDIT these. Hence some people get “speed boosts” for making a call to cust services. They simply increase the profile.
Base Station Capability can vary massively. Only a few use Fibre. Youd be surprised how far behind the networks are. Why do you think they all conspired against the public to shaft us with 500Mb a month?
Handset capability (handset CLASS) this can vary massively. If you dont have HSUPA then you’ll NEVER see faster than 384 Kilobit upload. This is the chipset limitation.
If the radio conditions are poor, you use QPSK (2 symbols) 16QAM uses (4 symbols) hence is twice as fast modulation. If you’re too far away then you’re at a 50% disadvantage already…
Which is why testing at the site is going to be better than testing miles down the road.
My local mast is a HSPA+ With decent capacity ( I know this because i use tmo mobile broadband) and i live almost in the city centre. And can get around 8Mbps ish.