How do I Increase GPRS speed...?
How do I Increase GPRS speed...?
Author
Discussion

roop

Original Poster:

6,018 posts

314 months

Thursday 5th May 2005
quotequote all
Is there any way I can speed up my GPRS connection...? I have a Sansung D500 on Orange which is connected to my laptop by Bluetooth. I was using it via GPRS the other day and was getting about 5kb/s from istes I know can deliver a lot more. I though GPRS could go much faster. Is there a way of speeding it up by adding additional 'channels' or something...?

sybaseian

1,826 posts

305 months

Thursday 5th May 2005
quotequote all
roop said:
Is there any way I can speed up my GPRS connection...? I have a Sansung D500 on Orange which is connected to my laptop by Bluetooth. I was using it via GPRS the other day and was getting about 5kb/s from istes I know can deliver a lot more. I though GPRS could go much faster. Is there a way of speeding it up by adding additional 'channels' or something...?


I use gprs for dialing into work if I'm out and about. I connect via Vodaphone which automatically compresses all data when it starts the connection application.

silverfox

164 posts

314 months

Thursday 5th May 2005
quotequote all
Roop,

5 kb/s is about right unless you are expecting "3G" performance.

5kb/s is about 5 kbps which is roughly the same speed as a "56K modem" in t' olden days...

This table might be helpful

www.cellular-news.com/3G/expected_speeds.shtml

but *I think* from your post you're at the limit.

roop

Original Poster:

6,018 posts

314 months

Thursday 5th May 2005
quotequote all
Thanks for thr replies guys. I guess I'm maxed out then. Still, a genuine 5kb/s isn't bad when you were used to crappy 14.4k before...!!!

Cheers,

Roop

PS : Nice SD1 Sean Big fan of the Vitesse myself

roop

Original Poster:

6,018 posts

314 months

Thursday 5th May 2005
quotequote all
Hrm, Aparrently my Samsung D500 support EDGE which allows faster data transfer (up to 384kbit/s peak) how do I connect with this rather than GPRS...?

Gaffer

7,156 posts

307 months

Thursday 5th May 2005
quotequote all
To use EDGE, you need a phone that supports it, a subscription from your network operator that supports EDGE, and the proper settings


C xxx

>> Edited by Gaffer on Thursday 5th May 19:49

Gaffer

7,156 posts

307 months

Thursday 5th May 2005
quotequote all
Had a quick look at orange for you and they dont support it in the UK...only Romania:

www.orange.ro/services/edge.html


C xxx

silverfox

164 posts

314 months

Thursday 5th May 2005
quotequote all
roop said:

PS : Nice SD1 Sean Big fan of the Vitesse myself


Thank you - so am I luckily...

pete

1,634 posts

314 months

Thursday 5th May 2005
quotequote all
You should be able to get a real 40Kb/s (bits, not Bytes) from a GPRS connection, in an area with good signal strength and not many voice calls in progress.

The curse of GPRS technology is that it shares channels and timeslots with the voice GSM network. Every operator has their performance measured in terms of voice calls connected successfully, so they all prioritise voice rather than data. In practical terms this means that if there are a lot of other mobile users in your cell (or worse, GPRS users), your effective GPRS bandwidth can fall almost nothing, even though you still appear to be connected.

Even more annoying is the fact that the GPRS standard includes a whole bunch of stuff around quality of service. The idea is that you can force a minimum acceptable bandwidth, but unfortunately none of the network operators have implemented it.

In my experience O2 have been one of the best operators for GPRS. I think they're the only network where most cells have completely separate infrastructure for GSM voice and GPRS data, so the contention issues aren't so obvious. None of the networks have adopted EDGE in a big way in Europe, although I've used it on AT&T in the US and Rogers in Canada, and it's noticeably quicker than plain GPRS. 3G is becoming worth a try for data use, at least in the South East; I've happily terminal served into my home PC from the train using an Orange 3G card, and often get sustained downloads of over 220Kb/s.

Pete

roop

Original Poster:

6,018 posts

314 months

Friday 6th May 2005
quotequote all
Thanks for all the info guys. Looks like I am stuck at 5kb/s unless I go 3G. I don't mind so long as I know I can't get better.

murph7355

41,992 posts

286 months

Saturday 7th May 2005
quotequote all
Nothing to add on the technical front, but be very, very sure you're comfy with your providers tariffs for GPRS use.

I had a very close call on an absolutely horrendous bill for GPRS while I was waiting for the idiots at BT to sort my landline out...

fieldl

1,320 posts

261 months

Monday 9th May 2005
quotequote all
If its for web access it is worth trialling Onspeed.
www.onspeed.com/en/

A few guys I work with use this for GPRS connectivity and it speeds it up massively. Makes it very usable indeed.