Posted by Calvin in Featured, Tech News, Telecoms, Wireless Technology | 32 Comments
Globe HSPA+ Speed Test Demo
Earlier I went to Heritage Hotel in Pasay where Globe did a demo of their HSPA+ network. The HSPA+ network is technically considered 4G already since it provides up to 6 – 7 times speed improvement over the current 3G network. Globe said on its initial state, it can do a max of 21 Mbps and upgraded version can do twice that speed and so on for each upgrade. Just like Tower Defense games.
In a simple sense, it’s basically an upgraded version of existing 3G networks so current 3G subscribers near an HSPA+ network would also feel a slight improvement on their speed.
Currently there’s only one HSPA+ base station in Pasay City and that’s in Heritage Hotel (EDSA corner Roxas Blvd.) so we did the demo there. There’s also one base station in Makati but maybe it’s too congested with 3G subscribers that’s why we opted for Pasay.
Anyhow on to the speed test demo. Here are the Speedtest results of laptops running on your current Globe Tattoo stick, a SmartBro stick, a Sun Cellular stick and a Globe HSPA+ stick which is soon to be available.
Regular Globe Tattoo stick within an HSPA+ covered area registered 2.55Mbps
Smart Bro stick got 1.11 Mbps (not bad)
Sun Wireless stick got 0.83Mbps
Globa HSPA+ stick gets 7.51Mbps
7.51 Mbps download speed on a mobile dongle. How does that reflect to an actual torrent download? Here’s uTorrent downloading a 914MB movie.
Download speed is hitting 517 kB/s which translates to around 5Mbps. This means torrent downloading of standard definition 700MB movies will only take around 30 minutes or less (depending on seeder quality of course).
The real strength of such speed is on concurrent downloads. See what happens if you download a dozen files all at once in uTorrent.
Click to view a larger version
Total download speed is hitting 1.4 MB/s. And in your Globe Tattoo launcher you will see that it translates to around 10.86 Mbps which is way faster than the SpeedTest result.
Download heaven don’t you think? Well you have to consider the location. We’re under a freaking base station and there’s probably only one HSPA+ user (which was us) and a handful of 3G users in the area so there’s a lot of bandwidth we can play with.
Pricing and availability for HSPA+ plans and devices are still on the works so we don’t have info on that yet but it will probably be finalized next month. We asked about bandwidth capping or throttling for HSPA+ and they can’t say anything concrete about it.
What Globe is saying is that with the roll-out of these HSPA+ stations, current 3G users will expect an improvement in service without having to upgrade devices nor incur additional costs or switch plans. Everything is as is including the 800MB daily cap for prepaid SuperSURF subscribers.
Any questions? I will be creating an FAQ regarding this HSPA+ but I still have to verify it with Globe personnel.
Related posts:
- Smart 3G speed test
- Globe tightens fair-use policy by implementing a 1GB/day cap
- Globe Tattoo is no different from Globe Visibility
- Globe Mobile Internet: 5 Pesos per 15 Minutes
- Globe Telecom launches Globe Labs
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This is great for wireless users, but somehow, wired users like myself will feel neglected. For one, hasn’t Globe already impose a cap of 1GB/day limit for us wired users?
Using your example, such capping will result to barely 2 movies per day.
HSPA+ is definitely good for everyone. Pushing technology to the masses is always good.
I have yet to experience such speeds on my Galaxy S and I’m looking forward to experience that with our local telcos soon.
your Galaxy S is not capable of HSPA+ although you should expect improved speed over 3G.
is dis available for wireless only, using usb dongle? or they will include those wired wimax subs?
this is very different from wimax. right now it’s for wireless through hspa+ sticks and dongles and routers and mobile phones.
a I am a wireless tattoo postpaid subscriber. Am I also subject to the 1G cap?
b I am planning to get another postpaid subscription. I am getting the MyFI wireless unit. Is that capable of getting HSPA+ signal?
c Is the Globe WiMax wireless modem capable of getting HSPA+ signal?
Thanks!
a. it’s still unclear about the 1GB cap whether it applies to wired or wireless subscribers.
b. devices that are capable of hspa+ speed are not yet available locally
c. wimax and hspa+ are different. not familiar with the wimax modem but i’m guessing it’s not capable of getting HSPA+ signal. you can check the specs though.
b. devices that are capable of hspa+ speed are not yet available locally
i see. so the device you use in which you got the 7mbps speed was a globe device exclusive for testing purposes only?
is getting a 4g capable modem phone a good idea in the futute?
yes that was just a demo stick.
as for 4g capable phones… here’s the thing. mobile 4G network is still new here in the country and i don’t think it would go mainstream for a year or two. base your decision on how often you switch phones and how badly you need that high-speed connection. but it’s always better to invest on future-proof device but in the case of phones, technology advances very quick so i would say hold off unless you really want it.
will globe be releasing 4G phones too?
yep!
You can achieve the same total speed above with the multiple torrents on a single download by using download accelerators (such as IDM). It uses the same principle by parting a single download and downloading it by parts at the same time. =)
hey i didn’t know that. thanks for sharing man!
NP boss! On my improved 1mbps DSL, which clocks at 1.40 mbps on speedtest.net, I get up to 190 kb/s using Internet Download Manager.
Without using the accelerator, my single file download only clocks at 150 kb/s tops.
I imagine that with the 7.51 mbps speed you get there, you will easily achieve 1+ mb/s download speed using IDM.
Let’s wait sa release nyan sa mass market. tignan natin ang performance ng mga HSPA+.
Ganun namna yan parati pag bago. Wala pa mga restrictions na nilalagay sa mga servers nila so definitely the quality of service is astounding.
Pag ginagamit na yan … dyan mo makikita ang puro reklamo. Bandwidth capping/throttling? Tinatanong pa ba yan? 101% sure yan pag na reach na nila yung marketing goals nila. Para naman pinanganak tayo nyan nung 1950s.
Pustahan pa tayo … 2 qtrs after marelease nila yan sa market puro na tayo reklamo dito.
Sus … syado namna naexcite kayo!
Ganun namna yan parati pag bago. Wala pa mga restrictions na nilalagay sa mga servers nila so definitely the quality of service is astounding.
Pag ginagamit na yan … dyan mo makikita ang puro reklamo. Bandwidth capping/throttling? Tinatanong pa ba yan? 101% sure yan pag na reach na nila yung marketing goals nila. Para naman pinanganak tayo nyan nung 1950s.
Pustahan pa tayo … 2 qtrs after marelease nila yan sa market puro na tayo reklamo dito.
i have a samsung galaxy tab p1000, can i use this for hspa+ 4g???
no you can’t.
hi sir. I want to ask:
Since you were talking about the 3 networks…
* Is sun cell imposing as well a data cap on its 3g usage? if yes how much bandwidth is it per time? and Smart a 1.5GB/month?
* I have a samsung galaxy mini, and when I use the internet, instead of the word 3g on the top of the screen, it sometimes go with “H” is that good or bad?
* is there a list wherein we would know as a consumer where to find this base station so we would know what provider to choose?
thanks!!!!!
hi faith, im not familiar with sun… but there are different caps for the type of plan you’re on. so mas makakaalam yung mga support agent ng bawat telco.
H is good… E is bad in terms of speed.
I’m not aware of such a list kasi nagbabago bago rin yan eh. nakakaalam mga kapitbahay.
Sir, yung sa suncel, yung mga unlimited internet nila like sa globe na superunli surf and sa smart na Unlisurf.
super unli alam ko 800mb a day… parang ganun dun ata sa smart unlisurf.
meron bang map ng hspa+ coverage ang globe?
limited areas pa rin.
saan ko ba mahahanap yung mga hspa+ signal? puro hsdpa lang nasasagap ko. -ermita manila
ano bang gamit mong device? baka hindi kaya hspa+… yung samsung galaxy s2, pati mga hspa+ sticks lang ang kayang makadetect ng hspa+
sir, in behalf of the wireless surfers here in mindanao, who wish to have a better and faster downloading experience.. sana po, ma.avail din namin ang hspa+ signal.. soon!
My friend is using a samsung galaxy s2 with globe’s my super surf and its very very slow. we tested it inside the block at sm north. She is very disappointed
via speedtest.net it only got .3mbps
that sucks… does it say you’re connected to hspa+? Dapat H+ ata yung icon sa taas. not G, not 3G.
Provincial Coverage meron na po ba?
Been using wimax for a month now in sta cruz manila, download barely exceeds 512kbps although i subscribed for 1mbps. Only during the first week of use did i experienced near 1mbps download speed. I should have gotten a dsl subscription instead. So i don’t see how globe could deliver full mobile 4g.