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How fast is 3G data? DON'T TEST IT !

sumware
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

I joined the "less for less" club yesterday and decided to find out just how much less I was getting. I thought I would see how slow 3G speeds really are and I ran a Telus Speedtest. I was pleasantly surprised to see 287MB/s until I realized at that speed my data plan was being emptied faster than my bank account on payday! Upon this realization, I quickly ended the test and pulled up my PM account. Instantly, I realized, I was down 500MB for 3 seconds of bliss! I suddenly felt like a cowboy in a scene from an old western movie in a brothel! (Once again, on payday.)
Upon digging into the community blog for me, my son dug up a post that stated that it takes 48 to 72 hours to throttle the Telus Lte speed down to a 3G speed of 3 to 12ish MB/s.
I have since set my mobile network setting to WCDMA/GSM autoconnect and another Telus speedtest left me feeling a whole lot better, giving me my promised "less for less" 3.7MB/s.
Other than that, I am enjoying the paying less part and see/feel no real difference as I hardly ever use more than 500MB/mo anyways. It is a good thing I still have the bonus 500MB or I might be a little more upset.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Heed my warning if you have just joined and pass this on to anyone you may be refering or know may be joining PM and we can all surf happily ever after.

10 REPLIES 10


@sumware wrote:

'Why not LTE/UCDMA/Auto you will get better coverage for data that way?'

 

If you set your phone to WCDMA/GSM as soon as you register wih Public Mobile, there is no chance of pulling data at the LTE speed. You will be running at 3G speed.


@sumware  I don't run speed tests or stream HD videos so not an issue for me.

MandyJ
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

Thanks for the tip. I'm a stats junkie and likely would have tried this at some point lol


@sumware wrote:

'Why not LTE/UCDMA/Auto you will get better coverage for data that way?'

 

If you set your phone to WCDMA/GSM as soon as you register wih Public Mobile, there is no chance of pulling data at the LTE speed. You will be running at 3G speed.


You might be quite surprised at how fast and how much data you can use on the "3g"/DC-HSPA network in one use of speedtest.net.

On the throttled LTE plans, you have access to both networks.  The latency of LTE is better than that of the 3G network, and the speed cap is slightly less than the actual speeds found on the 3G network.

 

Forcing the 3G network selection is a choice, to always use that network, and possible faster speeds on 3G than the throttled LTE.  Doing this, data is slower to start download, so pages may seem to take longer to start loading.

 

Forcing 3G also affects your ability to receive the Alert Ready emergency alerts, and only the LTE network gets this alerting system.

sumware
Great Neighbour / Super Voisin

'Why not LTE/UCDMA/Auto you will get better coverage for data that way?'

 

If you set your phone to WCDMA/GSM as soon as you register wih Public Mobile, there is no chance of pulling data at the LTE speed. You will be running at 3G speed.

geopublic
Mayor / Maire

@sumware wrote:

I joined the "less for less" club yesterday and decided to find out just how much less I was getting. I thought I would see how slow 3G speeds really are and I ran a Telus Speedtest. I was pleasantly surprised to see 287MB/s until I realized at that speed my data plan was being emptied faster than my bank account on payday! Upon this realization, I quickly ended the test and pulled up my PM account. Instantly, I realized, I was down 500MB for 3 seconds of bliss! I suddenly felt like a cowboy in a scene from an old western movie in a brothel! (Once again, on payday.)
Upon digging into the community blog for me, my son dug up a post that stated that it takes 48 to 72 hours to throttle the Telus Lte speed down to a 3G speed of 3 to 12ish MB/s.
I have since set my mobile network setting to WCDMA/GSM autoconnect and another Telus speedtest left me feeling a whole lot better, giving me my promised "less for less" 3.7MB/s.
Other than that, I am enjoying the paying less part and see/feel no real difference as I hardly ever use more than 500MB/mo anyways. It is a good thing I still have the bonus 500MB or I might be a little more upset.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Heed my warning if you have just joined and pass this on to anyone you may be refering or know may be joining PM and we can all surf happily ever after.


@sumware  Why not LTE/UCDMA/Auto you will get better coverage for data that way?

Dogbert
Model Citizen / Citoyen Modèle

At least you didn't do one speed test after another to verify the first one was working.

 

I've known someone to burn through a non-prepaid service by testing one after another (3 different variants if I remember correctly & some multiple times).

 

palm-smiley

@sumware, speedtest.net use more data when the connection is faster. I know that it's probably upsetting that you've used that much data up, but at least Public Mobile isn't going to send you a bill for it.

Lieux
Oracle
Oracle

@sumware thanks for sharing! And thanks for your sens of humour!!Smiley Wink Keep going..but not with some other test...

ShawnC13
Oracle
Oracle

@sumware, sorry you found out the hard way.  Yes, it is known here that it takes up to 72 hours for the throttle to kick in and that a speed test early on will eat up all your data.  You can take some comfort in knowing that you aren't the only one that this has happened to.

 


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