Comments on: Australian iPhone data test: which network is best?

By: Swiz

Swiz — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:34:32 +0000

Were there different views of the apps store when you were testing between the carrier locked devices?

By: Simon

Simon — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 01:10:59 +0000

Not sure if it would make a big difference but pretty sure the speedtest.net app's server is hosted by Optus, giving them a potential advantage over Vodafone.

By: Phil

Phil — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 11:51:16 +0000

The pings are pretty slow on all the networks. I'm on Voda in country Victoria, and it isn't that bad.

By: David

David — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 23:01:26 +0000

Were the accounts the tests were done on under contract or pre-paid?

Some providers use different APNs for pre-paid, with different network quality.

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 09:18:20 +0000

Brilliant, if your in sydney. Is there a possibility for a test to see who (Telstra, Optus, Vodafone and Three) has coverage in most areas and not just the area’s acrording to the providers website, i bet that will make an impact on peoples views.

By: Bomber

Bomber — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 01:05:20 +0000

As a Telstra employee, we pride ourselves on the works best in more places slogan. If you are referring to the iphone in particular, given this phone is a high data unit, I wouldn’t use it outside the Metro area in your case. Like Telstra or dislike Telstra, be it as it may, the network is unsurpassed and as such, you get what you pay for. You wouldn’t pay $50’000 for a mini moke would you? Why would anyone expect Telstra to charge a pittance for the utilisation of the best network in the country. All the best and happy browsing.

By: Justin

Justin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 19:19:49 +0000

Good work guys, but I think you missed a real opportunity here. What you should have done (or do in future) is have thrown it open to all users to submit speedtest.app results to you for collation – with this rich network of data, you could have built a ‘speed topography’ of Sydney (and wider) for each supplier (and the average) – how amazing would that be. Furthermore, to require five bars is unrealistic – coverage is just as significant an issue as speed.

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:37:36 +0000

It is like with everything, you pay a premium for the best, Telstra made a huge investment upgrading their network (around 2.5 billion) when the second largest Ausie telco just made an investment of 350 mil, it is reflected in the performance of the network. Maybe a teenager using his/her iphone to play wouldn’t mind, but for a business availability is critical… There is no brainier here.

By: Craig

Craig — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:29:27 +0000

What unit are you using for ping? It can’t be seconds, can it?

One big problem with this whole survey is the test web site, http://www.speedtest.net. Sure it is an easy site to use and seems to give statistical information but it really isn’t suitable for measuring the speed of HSPA networks as it reports the peak speed and not an average over a period of time.

The next real problem as stated above is the platform used for this survey, the iPhone. The iPhone only supports 7.2Mbps down and 384Kbps up. This in particular will not show the upload advantage provided by Telstra and Optus, who can provide up to 2Mbps in many locations. Telstra may even have some site support 5.7Mbps. Of course Telstra also has some sites that may provide up to 12Mbps or so downloads.

One other limitation with this survey is the time of day. The greatest congestion on the networks occurs between 8pm and 10pm on Monday to Thursday. Many of the networks are unuseable at these times including Telstra in some locations.

By: Nozlaf

Nozlaf — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 13:23:42 +0000

seems strange that you would be surprised by the NextG to Optus margin, the optus network is not capable of even half the speed of the NextG network.

If the chip in the iPhone supported the full speed of the NextG network we would be seeing bursts just under four times higher,

yet these tests represent the best the other networks can provide.