Vodafone vs XT... again
iPhonewzealand and Geekzone user Ahmad has repeated his speed tests he did last year in Dunedin using the iPhone on XT and Vodafone.
Data speeds on the iPhone, between Vodafone and XT, are a much discussed topic. There are many different sides of the story and many different reasons behind the results of speed tests. I would suggest that everyone take from this just a view to Ahmad’s experience at the given time in the given location. Some of you may have different experiences and speeds so it would be good to hear your thoughts.
Personally for me the XT speeds, where I use my iPhone, are much faster than that of Vodafone but that is not to say that other areas where you may use it won’t be different.
For a full breakdown head over to Ahmad’s Blog buttonmasher.co.nz to check out the results. As you will see Telecom’s XT still comes out on top, but it does make for an interesting read.
Tests were conducted between 12pm and 3pm on Tuesday 16 March at four locations scattered across the Dunedin central city. After discussion with an anonymous blog commenter “Sean”, I decided to go back to these four locations later that evening to perform “ping” testing (using OSX’s Terminal ie. equivalent of Window’s Command Prompt).
– Buttonmasher.co.nz post
If you are looking for a summary you can check out the his blog post on Geekzone.
In summary, I found that at 3 out of 4 locations across the Dunedin central city, downloading a large file for the purpose of testing speed was significantly faster when using a Telecom XT SIM card compared to a Vodafone 3G SIM card. At the other location (Otago University Campus), the result was essentially too close to call (although marginally to Vodafone 3G).
– Geekzone Summary
Vroom Vroom
Have a read and let us know your thoughts in the comments.
I also find XT fast in Dunedin. I regually get speedtests of 2mbit+.
(Mak has made 222 comments)
Hi everyone. I'd be particularly interested to know if anyone has found Vodafone to be superior in speed compared to XT in their location. Unfortunately this test seems to cast further doubt on the accuracy of the SpeedTest.net App so it may be hard to gather decent objective data from users.
(ahmad has made 101 comments)
Beats me?! It is so random, while sitting here typing this I have gone from 5 bars to 1 bar to 3 and now back to 5.
Did you notice any change following the outage? I am convinced I used to have (now back to 2 bars) full signal strength nearly all the time in residential Dunedin.
And still it continues, 1 bar to 4 to 2 all before I finished typing. And now full signal. It makes me wonder if it’s my iPhone?
(knottsav has made 17 comments)
@ ahmad:
Hi, yes the sim v2 was a free upgrade. They hinted at a v3 being rolled out in the future that was going to be done via the network rather than a physical card though.
I am on George St up by the Regent 24. Previously I could sit in my office with full signal strength, likewise in my home in Andy bay, but now it seems to be constantly fluctuating.
Cheers
(knottsav has made 17 comments)
@ knottsav:
Hmm, the university campus testing was HORRENDOUSLY poor compared to the rest of the locations in Dunedin. Very much out of keeping with the rest of the results.
I’m not sure exactly why North Dunedin is so poor but I have since heard people confirm/complain about their experiences up your way. I did mention it to one of the guys at the Telecom Dunedin store and he hinted at knowing about the speed complaints but didn’t appear to be holding back any knowledge of why it was happening
(ahmad has made 101 comments)
@ ahmad:
Ahhh, you have experienced it too, so unlikely my phone alone then. Interestingly, I have people dot in my office with other phones on XT (nokia e71) and they don’t have the fluctuation like I’m seeing.
Perhaps as you query, they’re still working on things….and their idea of off peak and ours differs
(knottsav has made 17 comments)
I am with XT in Dunedin and ever since "the outage" I have had patchy reception at best. I have mostly ignored it until yesterday when signal strength out in the open was so poor I was unable to text or place calls. A visit to the local Telecom store had me 'upgrade' to a version 2 sim card. Sadly, today the signal strength is still weak and patchy, whereas I used to have full reception almost 100% of the time in town.
Anyone else experiencing this?
(knottsav has made 17 comments)
My apologies. I was overseas at the time of the biggest outage. But that 5 to 1 to none (losing the "3G" logo and hence the XT signal) to 5 again is something I was experiencing last week in Maori Hill.
Are Telecom working on the network as a result of the outages and is any such work possibly behind such problems?
I did hear on the radio they were planning some OFF PEAK work that might affect the network but have no idea what times they meant.
(ahmad has made 101 comments)
@ knottsav:
Hi knottsav, was the SIM "upgrade" free? I've been meaning to do this.
I am using a V1 card and have had patchy signal on the east side of Maori Hill (or whatever the hill is called). Incidentally this is an area which Vodafone 3G has no signal (GSM fallback).
I was experiencing some total dropouts in this area (this was last week) but the phone managed to reconnect within a few seconds of each dropout. This was while accessing mobile data so I can't comment on calls/txts.
Which area are you using it in? When I was in the central city and doing the above tests, I had pretty strong signals on both XT and Vodafone, with no noted dropouts (except at one stage on University campus the XT download test crawled and I thought would time out but recovered).
(ahmad has made 101 comments)
Up at Kavanagh College I actually often get random falls from full (5) bars down to what appears to be zero but is probably 1 (hard to see) and then very shortly back up to 5 again.
I don’t get this at home (Mornington).
(Mak has made 222 comments)
@ Mak:
Thanks Mak, it’s helpful to know others are experiencing similar.
Here’s hoping they will get it sorted in the not too distant future.
(knottsav has made 17 comments)
I spoke to Telecom’s Neal Richardson who said they are currently installing two new cell sites in Dunedin which should help these problems.
http://twitter.com/TelecomNZ/status/11049467647
(Mak has made 222 comments)
Standing outside University Book Shop.
Just dropped from 5 to 2 then back to 5 bars if signal. No complete drop-off. Hope this area is covered by the changes too
(ahmad has made 101 comments)
Mak wrote:
Fantastic! And thanks for posting this.
(knottsav has made 17 comments)
I can also confirm it certainly isn’t iPhone only — my friend’s Telecom R6 was being affected in the same ways whilst we were studying at school today.
(Mak has made 222 comments)