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EE 4G Speed Slower than Three's 3G

Beanoir said:
Well I have to say, i've seen a few people testing it out in London today, and not one person managed over 20mbits. I'm not debating your evidence, i'm just saying, i'm basing my reports on that, and what the BBC tested in a real world interview today in Manchester.

If it was 40mbits and it covered more than 5% of the UK and it wasn't ridiculously priced, then yes i'd probably have a slice of the 4G action, but it's not worth it as it currently stands.
Click to expand...

The speeds are there, I've another screen shot of around 8 speed test today, all 20Mbps and higher. I wouldn't knock them for speed, but we should all rightly condemn them for profiteering, the high prices and stupid data caps are what everybody should criticise them for.

Unfortunately it seems commercially that 4G EE is being controlled by a clique of ex FranceTelecom Orange staff, so instead of getting some of the innovative T-Mobile features we are being screwed with old Orange.

The woman in charge of the consumer division is the ex head of Orange PAYG, remember how competitive their data bundles were? 100MB was considered generous.
 
EE only said the average speed you will be getting from 4GEE is 8-12MB, they are play safe here. They have never said the speed will be capped, p2p connection will be limited during the day however.
 
There are bound to be lots of teething problems with this, seeing how far behind other countries the UK is with 4G.

But for my money, Three's 3G speeds are more than quick enough for my needs and for £15pm I get 3GB of data and 300minutes + stupid amount of texts which I don't use anymore.
EE's target market clearly isn't the average smartphone user.
 
Beanoir said:
Sorry, London and Essex (work and home) so yes, in line with M4 but the other side of London.

I get between 8mb being the lowest generally, and upto 19mb is the fastest i've recorded on at least 3 occasions looking at my speedtest app. I'd say on average i'm getting about 12-14mb.

I think its becasue Three use HSPA+ and the iPhone5 takes advanatge of that technology where previous generation iPhones couldn't?
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That's good speeds! I know you said "slower", but what specifically were you getting on EE 4G in the same location?

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d123 said:
???:confused:

Image
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That's well good! What was the location and the handset?
 
Steven. said:
On average I get a download speed of about 19mbps on Three, so very happy with that.

Plus £36 for 500mb of data, or as much as £56 for 8GB data on EE? I'll stick with my £15 for unlimited data on Three!

It's a no brainer.
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So jealous. We get unlimited data with 3 too in Ireland but our speeds are terrible. I often find my speed less than 1mbps
 
I think at a certain point the number just becomes superficial and has no real impact on speed. I'd say around 8mbps down and 3mbps up where it doesn't affect most things anymore
 
tymaster50 said:
I think at a certain point the number just becomes superficial and has no real impact on speed. I'd say around 8mbps down and 3mbps up where it doesn't affect most things anymore
Click to expand...

On the iPhone itself, that is true. But when you talking about tethering or iPad, having 50mb/s is going to make steaming HD video so smooth.

That's why you can't judge the 4G performance just on your iP5.
 
dchao said:
On the iPhone itself, that is true. But when you talking about tethering or iPad, having 50mb/s is going to make steaming HD video so smooth.

That's why you can't judge the 4G performance just on your iP5.
Click to expand...

on the iPhone using the slower LTE connection I can load sites just as fast as my laptop on my 17mbps connection lol and video is the same, I would do another test but I'm very close to the 2gb limit, im at 1.84 so cell connection is a no no for about a week.
 
d123 said:
The speeds are there, I've another screen shot of around 8 speed test today, all 20Mbps and higher. I wouldn't knock them for speed, but we should all rightly condemn them for profiteering, the high prices and stupid data caps are what everybody should criticise them for.

Unfortunately it seems commercially that 4G EE is being controlled by a clique of ex FranceTelecom Orange staff, so instead of getting some of the innovative T-Mobile features we are being screwed with old Orange.

The woman in charge of the consumer division is the ex head of Orange PAYG, remember how competitive their data bundles were? 100MB was considered generous.
Click to expand...

Have a read of this for another view and real world test.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20121054

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Article written by Rory Cellan-Jones
Technology correspondent

Rory Cellan-Jones speed tests the new 4G service in Manchester
For 36 hours, I have been trying out 4G in two cities where it has been launched by the EE network. Everywhere I've gone in London and Manchester, outside, indoors, on trains and in cars, I've used a speed testing application. And while I've seen some breathtakingly fast results, there has also been some worrying evidence that the speed and extent of the 4G network is being oversold.

Here is a selection of my results:

Monday 29 October, 14:55 GMT, Oxford Street: Download 53.74 Mbps, Upload 4.72 Mbps, Ping 33 ms
Picking up the 4G phone that I was borrowing from the EE store on Oxford Street, I gave it my first test - and it was very very fast. A 53Mbps download is better than the vast majority of UK broadband users could achieve at home right now - but obviously at EE's flagship central London store, the company had made sure the network delivered.

15:12 GMT, BBC Broadcasting House: Download 8.13Mbps, Upload 0.05 Mbps, Ping 62 msOh dear - inside the BBC's new headquarters, things slowed right down. But then again, for some reason most mobile phone networks don't work at all inside the state-of-the-art building so this was better than many colleagues were getting.

18:55 GMT, Euston Station Food Court - no resultDeep inside a chaotic Euston Station, more problems. The Speedtest app could not detect any data signal at all.

19:19 GMT, Euston platform 7: Download 16.31 Mbps, Upload 12.09 Mbps, Ping 41 msBut once we took our seats on the Manchester train, 4G leaped back into life. The upload speeds looked startlingly good as we waited for the train to leave. As we headed out through North London, however, the 4G network seemed to disappear even before we had breached the North Circular Road.

21:56 GMT, Manchester Piccadilly: Download 17.27 Mbps, Upload 11.57 Mbps, Ping 37 msOnce we had arrived in Manchester, one of the 11 cities that were to go live with EE 4G on Tuesday morning, I was relieved to see that things were working.

Tuesday 30 October, 06:13 GMT, Teacup & Cakes Cafe: Download 19.37 Mbps, Upload 11.19 Mbps, Ping 57 msAt the cafe which kindly opened at the crack of dawn so that we could broadcast into BBC Breakfast and numerous radio stations, another pretty good result. That kind of speed might not look too startling - but if there is plenty of capacity it would make 4G a very attractive option to small businesses looking for an alternative to fixed broadband.

10:34 GMT, Stanycliffe: Download 8.03 Mbps, Upload 1.80 Mbps, Ping 129 ms (3G)We headed north out of Manchester to see how far the 4G network stretched. As expected it melted away as we crossed the M60, but EE's 3G network proved surprisingly robust. This result from a village on the road to Rochdale looks excellent - but if you can get this on 3G why would you pay more for 4G?

13:19 GMT, Media City Salford: Download 13.33 Mbps, Upload 6.31 Mbps, Ping 57 ms
Live from outside the BBC North base at Salford, we were back on 4G at a pretty respectable if unspectacular speed. Note the upload figure though - for anyone trying to send data rather than receive that will look very attractive. Mind you, inside the BBC building the 4G disappeared again. Vodafone has suggested that EE's brand of 4G won't be effective indoors - does that charge stick?

18:44 GMT, Near Stockport: Download 16.65 Mbps, Upload 12.88 Mbps, Ping 38 msAs our train headed out of Manchester, the 4G network seemed to stretch as far as Stockport. Taking advantage of some impressive upload speeds, I uploaded a video to YouTube in under a minute.

21:43 GMT, Ealing London: Download 4.46 Mbps, Upload 1.51 Mbps, Ping 76 ms (3G)
But there was a disappointing end to my 4G testing marathon. Arriving at my home in the remote wastelands of west London, I found that EE's network did not stretch this far. True - this 3G result is a lot better than my usual network gives me at home. But if 4G really is supposed to deliver a superfast future, indoors and outside, to 98% of the UK's population, wouldn't you expect it to work right across the nation's capital? Maybe the change of brand to EE is a tacit admission that the network just cannot deliver Everything Everywhere.
 
Beanoir said:
Have a read of this for another view and real world test.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20121054

----------

Article written by Rory Cellan-Jones
Technology correspondent

Rory Cellan-Jones speed tests the new 4G service in Manchester
For 36 hours, I have been trying out 4G in two cities where it has been launched by the EE network. Everywhere I've gone in London and Manchester, outside, indoors, on trains and in cars, I've used a speed testing application. And while I've seen some breathtakingly fast results, there has also been some worrying evidence that the speed and extent of the 4G network is being oversold.

Here is a selection of my results:

Monday 29 October, 14:55 GMT, Oxford Street: Download 53.74 Mbps, Upload 4.72 Mbps, Ping 33 ms
Picking up the 4G phone that I was borrowing from the EE store on Oxford Street, I gave it my first test - and it was very very fast. A 53Mbps download is better than the vast majority of UK broadband users could achieve at home right now - but obviously at EE's flagship central London store, the company had made sure the network delivered.

15:12 GMT, BBC Broadcasting House: Download 8.13Mbps, Upload 0.05 Mbps, Ping 62 msOh dear - inside the BBC's new headquarters, things slowed right down. But then again, for some reason most mobile phone networks don't work at all inside the state-of-the-art building so this was better than many colleagues were getting.

18:55 GMT, Euston Station Food Court - no resultDeep inside a chaotic Euston Station, more problems. The Speedtest app could not detect any data signal at all.

19:19 GMT, Euston platform 7: Download 16.31 Mbps, Upload 12.09 Mbps, Ping 41 msBut once we took our seats on the Manchester train, 4G leaped back into life. The upload speeds looked startlingly good as we waited for the train to leave. As we headed out through North London, however, the 4G network seemed to disappear even before we had breached the North Circular Road.

21:56 GMT, Manchester Piccadilly: Download 17.27 Mbps, Upload 11.57 Mbps, Ping 37 msOnce we had arrived in Manchester, one of the 11 cities that were to go live with EE 4G on Tuesday morning, I was relieved to see that things were working.

Tuesday 30 October, 06:13 GMT, Teacup & Cakes Cafe: Download 19.37 Mbps, Upload 11.19 Mbps, Ping 57 msAt the cafe which kindly opened at the crack of dawn so that we could broadcast into BBC Breakfast and numerous radio stations, another pretty good result. That kind of speed might not look too startling - but if there is plenty of capacity it would make 4G a very attractive option to small businesses looking for an alternative to fixed broadband.

10:34 GMT, Stanycliffe: Download 8.03 Mbps, Upload 1.80 Mbps, Ping 129 ms (3G)We headed north out of Manchester to see how far the 4G network stretched. As expected it melted away as we crossed the M60, but EE's 3G network proved surprisingly robust. This result from a village on the road to Rochdale looks excellent - but if you can get this on 3G why would you pay more for 4G?

13:19 GMT, Media City Salford: Download 13.33 Mbps, Upload 6.31 Mbps, Ping 57 ms
Live from outside the BBC North base at Salford, we were back on 4G at a pretty respectable if unspectacular speed. Note the upload figure though - for anyone trying to send data rather than receive that will look very attractive. Mind you, inside the BBC building the 4G disappeared again. Vodafone has suggested that EE's brand of 4G won't be effective indoors - does that charge stick?

18:44 GMT, Near Stockport: Download 16.65 Mbps, Upload 12.88 Mbps, Ping 38 msAs our train headed out of Manchester, the 4G network seemed to stretch as far as Stockport. Taking advantage of some impressive upload speeds, I uploaded a video to YouTube in under a minute.

21:43 GMT, Ealing London: Download 4.46 Mbps, Upload 1.51 Mbps, Ping 76 ms (3G)
But there was a disappointing end to my 4G testing marathon. Arriving at my home in the remote wastelands of west London, I found that EE's network did not stretch this far. True - this 3G result is a lot better than my usual network gives me at home. But if 4G really is supposed to deliver a superfast future, indoors and outside, to 98% of the UK's population, wouldn't you expect it to work right across the nation's capital? Maybe the change of brand to EE is a tacit admission that the network just cannot deliver Everything Everywhere.
Click to expand...

So basically, when there's 4G signal it's great... when there's not it's not great.

Just picking the last one in particular: I was in Ealing yesterday. O2 only had Edge, no 3G at all!
 
I'm moving to EE as soon as the Sim Only plans are released.

Here in Liverpool, we don't have the "faster" 3G network, just the standard, so EE blow 3's speeds away.
 
d123 said:
The speeds are there, I've another screen shot of around 8 speed test today, all 20Mbps and higher. I wouldn't knock them for speed, but we should all rightly condemn them for profiteering, the high prices and stupid data caps are what everybody should criticise them for.

Unfortunately it seems commercially that 4G EE is being controlled by a clique of ex FranceTelecom Orange staff, so instead of getting some of the innovative T-Mobile features we are being screwed with old Orange.

The woman in charge of the consumer division is the ex head of Orange PAYG, remember how competitive their data bundles were? 100MB was considered generous.
Click to expand...

exactly.. 4G LTE is almost 10x more efficient than 3g/hspa+DC-HSPA+ etc. It might be more to build the towers because its a new technology.. but its cheaper to run/maintain.
 
From what I've read one of the big advantages of having 4G is that the range and strength of the 3G signal is also better. So you not only benefit from the faster data speed of 4G but an overall better 3G connection too.
 
I think I will stick with my unlimited plan at the moment. Sim only plans seem reasonable if you comparing with other network providers deal.
 
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