Speedtest causing over 600mb of data

[slewin]

I do not know if anyone else has had this issue.  I just added my phone to Public Mobile and wanted to test the mobile speed so I used the speedtest application and first it oddly showed 300mbps which should not be possible, but the second horror is that it used over 600mb on a single internet test.  I only have a 1GB plan, so this leaves me with less than 400mb for the whole month.

I have not contacted the people at speedtest yet, but I plan on doing that.  I do not know how a simple internet speed test would cause 600mb of data

[nierth]

Yes generally speed tests use up a lot of data. I learned that firsthand before.

[slewin]

Thank you @BearFBI for the info

[BearFBI]

@slewin 3G will give you more bandwidth but slower speeds. The connection from you to the tower won't be as good. 3G has More ping, Jitter and packet loss. I find webpages load faster with 4G throttled than 3G. 

[slewin]

Thanks gpixel4.  It looks like you got better speeds with the 3G over the 4G throttled.

[slewin]

Oh, that is good advice @gpixel, thanks.  I am in Ontario and in eastern time, but still good to know.

[gpixel]

@slewin here I did the speedtest for you for both LTE(throttled) and HSPA+3g

 

 

yes they dont throttle the 3g. so if you really need faster download speeds, then you have the option to switch

[slewin]

True, in hindsight I would for sure have waited a week before doing the test @BearFBI.  Now I am scared to use it at all on my phone just in case and will probably delete the program.

[slewin]

Okay, that makes sense @ShawnC13 as we are still using the Telus network, just throttled back if I got that right.

[gpixel]

@amppm @slewin 

remember that PM is based on ET. just a warning that if you're living on the western part of Canada, your plan will renew a day earlier because of the time difference. be advised, if you have any data left and are planning to use it up before your next renewal

ie. renewal date is set for September. 22, your plan/data will renew

• ET September 22 @ 12:00am
• PT September 21 @ 9:00pm 

also your self serve process renewal will appear as "expired, suspended,active". I think the whole process takes about 9-10hours 

[amppm]

I made the same mistake

120 Mbps down / 60 up on LTE

Used up 223 MB 

[BearFBI]

@slewin This happend to me too when I started. I used all my data. I got pretty good speeds though, 800Mbps Up and Down. I got good towers in my area and it helps that my Galaxy s10 has an amazing cellular modem. 

Lesson learned do not run speedtests on limited data plans. Wait 3 days untill the throttle kicks in then run the speedtest. It will only use a few MB of data.

[sheytoon]

@slewin yeah you have to be careful. Your speeds will be throttled after 2-3 days. Until then you have no restrictions. Under good conditions, you can use more than 1 GB on a single speed test.

I agree Ookla should warn people about the risk. Especially in Canada where unlimited plans are not prevalent.

 

[slewin]

Thanks @Anonymous and that makes complete sense.  I still think Ookla should warn people about potential data that could be used, even though I understand most people with really high bandwidth also have really high data.

[Anonymous]

It's nobody's "fault". It's how it works.

That initial ping test determines how much data it'll decide to send and receive. It sees a very low ping test and says oh ok here we go give'r.

The part you wouldn't've known was that on initial activation, Public Mobile gives you full LTE in all its glory. Then a couple days later it gets throttled down.

[ShawnC13]

---

@slewin wrote:

The speed I got in the test was 336mbps down and 11 up and it does show as LTE.  I could not find a contact on the speedtest site, so I sent a private message to Ookla on Twitter which is the people that run it.

---

@slewin, it will always show LTE or 4G if that is the network it is connected to but PM then throttles it down.   You can always manually select to only connect 3G if you wish.

[slewin]

The speed I got in the test was 336mbps down and 11 up and it does show as LTE.  I could not find a contact on the speedtest site, so I sent a private message to Ookla on Twitter which is the people that run it.

[slewin]

Thank you @geopublic at least this answers why the speed showed so high.  I must admit I never knew LTE could go that fast, scary.  I will be happier when it throttles back.

[slewin]

Thank you @gblackma.  I will try to live with the remaining data for the month if I can as I am pretty good with using less, but if I find I can not I will go by your suggestion.

[geopublic]

---

@slewin wrote:

I do not know if anyone else has had this issue.  I just added my phone to Public Mobile and wanted to test the mobile speed so I used the speedtest application and first it oddly showed 300mbps which should not be possible, but the second horror is that it used over 600mb on a single internet test.  I only have a 1GB plan, so this leaves me with less than 400mb for the whole month.

I have not contacted the people at speedtest yet, but I plan on doing that.  I do not know how a simple internet speed test would cause 600mb of data

---

@slewin  Big no no!! When you first sign-up with PM your data will run on full LTE until it gets throttled to LTE lite (3-5 Mbps) which will take up to a week to kick in.

[gblackma · Accepted solution]

@slewin initially when you activate it takes a little while for the throttling to come into effect. What speed did you get? Thanks. And now you can look into getting a 1 gigabyte data add on for $15. Stay safe. 

[Triguy]

It is never recommended to do a speed test on a mobile data connection because it uses alot of data.