3G - What's the point ?

[Guest mrdo]

does anyone have any proper uses for my hermes that utilises 3G ?

as far as i can see, the speed is disappointing and it drains battery life.

am i missing something ?

Edited March 22, 2007 by mrdo

[Guest Confucious]

Speed is disapointing? Why? My 3g is blasingly fast compared to GPRS and I wouldn't go back yo a phone without it!

Which carrier are you with? Which proxy do you use and which DNS?

What part is slow? Connecting (proxy) locating (DNS) or downloading (network speed)

[Guest balzer1]

why, thats like saying broadband is disappointing compared to my old 56k modem.Have you ever tried Orb? Fantastic media streaming from home pc (free) and it will only work well with a fast connection.

[Guest mrdo]

hmmm. i'm with orange and i don't really see any different with web pages or rss feeds loading over gprs.

tried to watch some tv but i assume orange have blocked the ports or protocol. :-(

any suggestions ?

will have a look at orb ... :-)

[Guest Confucious]

RSS feeds are usually just text and you won't see much diff I don't think but webb pages? With pictures should be a LOT faster. You don't have your location on your profile. If you are in central London speeds are apparently slower than outside of London due to the number of people using it. But if you're with O then your lucky - if you were getting hi speeds then your bills would go through the roof! lol

[Guest mrdo]

i'm outside of london. still can't think why my speed is so poor.

at the moment, the trade-off between speed and battery life doesn't seem to be worth it ...

:-(

[Guest Confucious]

Do you have full 3G signal? If your battery life is that bad it might be searching for the signal (and possibly flicking between GPRS and 3G?)

[Guest adge]

It can't be as slow as my T-mobile 3G currently - it's way slower than GSM at the moment, and usually fails completely !!

Adge

[Guest 2004mark]

There are a few web apps that I use that just wont work with GPRS because it's to slow, but when connected via 3G they fly, streaming radio and video just two examples. Also if I needed to download a 30 mb file using GPRS it would take hours (well it'd feel that way) compared to minutes with 3G.

I'm using Orange and pay for the £5 pm data package (unlimited data during off peak times), I think that its great. I also don't really notice any difference in battery life, I charge my M3100 every 48 hours or so - sometimes longer. The really battery drain imo is wifi.

At the end of the day, mobile operators just wouldn't have spent millions of pounds upgrading/installing new 3G base stations if it didn't make any difference.

If your really that disappointed with 3G you had better hold out for EDGE.

[Guest OzzMosiz]

I've tried using Live Search with 3g, but find the maps don't load! Weird as it works fine over Wifi.

[Guest Confucious]

I have a Universal and use Live maps over 3G (on T-Mob) with no probs. I don't use WiFi as that DOES eat the battery!

[Guest Christopher Woods]

I'm one of the many people who is LOVING 3G - with HSDPA that really seals the deal.

Couldn't move to another provider unless they offered the same, flat-rate data offerings with HSDPA - I'm totally hooked, and I'll remain a T-Mobile customer for the foreseeable future. The phone was an awesome price too, even taking into account it's an 18-month contract. Can't beat it.

I get over 1mb/sec when I use the phone as a wireless modem, but I don't do that so often - I still get 700/800kbps easy through the phone, and that's even with the lag the phone induces because of its slow CPU. I call it a bargain!

[Guest plainz]

I'm one of the many people who is LOVING 3G - with HSDPA that really seals the deal.

Couldn't move to another provider unless they offered the same, flat-rate data offerings with HSDPA - I'm totally hooked, and I'll remain a T-Mobile customer for the foreseeable future. The phone was an awesome price too, even taking into account it's an 18-month contract. Can't beat it.

I get over 1mb/sec when I use the phone as a wireless modem, but I don't do that so often - I still get 700/800kbps easy through the phone, and that's even with the lag the phone induces because of its slow CPU. I call it a bargain!

totally agree

currently downloading torrent in background (wmtorrent 30kbs), looking at ie and using logmein to remotely control pc - i need hspda - when i move to gprs it doesn't seem worth even looking at static web. Perhaps this is the silliest thread i've seen - i can never return to not having internet reasonably fast always.

The problem with slow rendering and display is windows mobile - internet exploration starts slow and builds up speed.

[Guest Aidan Bree]

I have had the same handset on both orange and T-Mobile and I can say that the speed of data transfers on T-Mobile is far better.

I use logmein, orb, emoze and the gmail java applet. The speed that 3G delivers makes it possible for me to get around 1.3mb downstream on the laptop.

I do get problems with logmein not working quite a lot of time...it just continually asks to reinstall the applet.

[Guest danktuft]

Long since gave up on 3G. I love it but my battery (third one so it can't be a bad one) last between 6-8 hours. I just use it for work so email (push and pull) and downloading files. Simple fact is that 3G uses around 2.5 times the power GSM does on this phone, I got that info from this site when first wondering about how useless the battery was. I keep mine on GSM unless I need to download a large file.

Edited March 26, 2007 by danktuft

[Guest ripnet]

Last week, I was at a customer site, installing software... I was able to get my laptop on the web using T-Mob HSCPDA and remote desktop home, and 'play' while waiting for it to install... this thing truely is broadband on the go. I was also able to download a few films to watch on the train (i did about 500 megs last week). I use the phone plugged into the PC via USB when doing this, so the battery life is not a problem.

Like someone else said, im hooked... i would sign up for another 12 months with t-mob even if they DIDNT give me a new phone when my contract ends... they ROCK

g

[Guest Christopher Woods]

Last week, I was at a customer site, installing software... I was able to get my laptop on the web using T-Mob HSCPDA and remote desktop home, and 'play' while waiting for it to install... this thing truely is broadband on the go. I was also able to download a few films to watch on the train (i did about 500 megs last week). I use the phone plugged into the PC via USB when doing this, so the battery life is not a problem.

Like someone else said, im hooked... i would sign up for another 12 months with t-mob even if they DIDNT give me a new phone when my contract ends... they ROCK

g

Exactly! I just hope that when my contract comes up for renewal next March they don't remove my HSDPA allowance... I'll get mad if they do that ;)

[Guest Alexjames]

I am pretty new to all this 3G and stuff, i dont really understand what it, well after reading this topic i have a good idea.

I recently got an Orange M3100, when i click start and internet explorer, it connects using GPRS, 3G, is this the fastest way to use the net on my phone?

Thanks

[Guest jimbouk]

I am pretty new to all this 3G and stuff, i dont really understand what it, well after reading this topic i have a good idea.

I recently got an Orange M3100, when i click start and internet explorer, it connects using GPRS, 3G, is this the fastest way to use the net on my phone?

Thanks

Yes - although O are rolling HSDPA out - and I dont know if their base rom and radio are HSDPA enabled. I didnt get it until I upgraded the radio rom.