Sunday, July 27. 2008HSPA And Gaming In The UKJohn Linton I was prompted by a comment on one of my recent musings about HSPA being a sensible replacement for wire line broadband as the download quotas became more realistically priced (from the user's point of view) and the 3G speeds became more widely avaialble (and HSPA connections didn't return to 56 kbps dial up speeds in so many places) to more thoroughly test 'pings' over the past two days. As we drove progressively nearer London the HSPA speeds continued to increase even in the very rural locations we have stayed the night for the past three nights. At the moment I am showing I get a 3.6 mbps connection on my TMobile service and when I download from Australian sites I am getting around 1 mbps on downloads and 400 kbps on uploads. Pings to Exetel's servers are around 400 ms as are pings to other Australian ISPs. Given the traces to all the Australian sites. As these pings are traveling around 20,000 kms (London via Los Angeles to Sydney) the ping results are quite good as can be seen from this trace: Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600] C:\Documents and Settings\John Linton>tracert exetel.com.au Tracing route to exetel.com.au [220.233.0.9] 1 113 ms 100 ms 98 ms 172.18.51.98 Trace complete. As a good ping from a fast broadband service in Sydney to Los Angeles will seldom achieve better than 170 ms tto 200 ms, the additional distance (which is approximately the same) is comparable. I don't have a WOW or other games set up on my laptop so I couldn't test actual player response times on any game either in the USA or in Australia but when I called TMobile technical support pretending I was having trouble with WOW they immediately tested the server I told them I was playing on and they said they had no reports from WOW users playing on any server having problems and their tests to the server I nominated showed no speed issues at all. So I apologised for wasting their time and hung up. None of this means anything in terms of an Australian HSPA service that Exetel might provide in Australia (which we will obviously test in Australia over the next 4 - 6 weeks from various cities) but it does seem to indicate that there are no inherent problems in playing interactive games via an HSPA service. At least that's what it seems to me based on my extremely limited engineering abilities and knowledge. I've now completed testing HSPA as a service in the UK and my conclusions are these: 1) As a traveler it is so much better and cheaper than the alternatives of internet cafes and hotel WIFI or Ethernet I wouldn't use anything else 2) For picking up email and web browsing and intranet access on a train or on a major highway it works fine 3) Once you move outside the 3G coverage areas you can expect dial up speeds or slightly better which is servicable but most internet cafes will provide a much faster service 4) It id almost certainly the 'only' service to use for a traveler. 5) As a wire line broadband replacement it is suitable in any area where you can get a strong 3G signal For me, on this trip, it has been a life saver (or at least a bet saver) and as Exetel now progresses towards offering HSPA in Australia this has been a very valuable 'end user' look at what such a service may be able to deliver. I'm looking forward to getting a few of our customers in Australia to test the HSPA service we will be offering in Australia when I get back in mid August. Trackbacks
Trackback specific URI for this entry
No Trackbacks
Comments
Display comments as
(Linear | Threaded)
If you are looking for a volunteer in Wollongong. Count me in.
Comment (1)
Thank you for yor offer - I'll let you know when I get back to Australia.
Comments (6)
"customers in Australia to test the HSPA service...." Would be a customer but no ADSL2 ports available at Mount Hawthorn, WA. Looking at HSPA as an alternative. Would love to help testing, plenty of spare time, ex Telstra staff, soon to be ex Telstra customer.
Comment (1)
Were there any issues with dropouts?
I've heard reports in Australia, if downloading a larger file for example, and the receiver changes cell sites, it can either corrupt a couple of packets, or cause the whole download to fail. I'd be happy to test the service in Newcastle for you - I'm one of the many people up here hanging out for an alternative to Telstra! Comment (1)
The first hop RTT of 100ms is pretty lousy when compared to the 15-20ms RTT I see now on ADSL2+ . My experience with Virgin's HSDPA service in Sydney shows similar first hop RTT.
I don't know much about the underlying technology & protocols (which might explain the higher RTT) but as it stands HSPA would not be a suitable replacement for gamers. Comment (1)
You may well be correct - we'll have to do extensive testing before releasing the service to ensure it's capabilities are well understood.
Comments (6)
I subscribed to BT Openzone wifi when I arrived in UK last week. I use it to check email, web searches, sending exetel sms to family. I have even made a couple of Voip calls.
My 30 day account costs GBP 40.00 for 4,000 minutes. How does that compare with HSPA costs? Regards, Harry Comment (1)
The TMobile (no contract) plan is GBP 4 a day that you use it including effectively unlimited downloads.
Comments (6)
I'd be interested in helping with testing in the Melbourne.
Rob Comment (1)
Current ping on 8132 eXeTeL NSW ADSL1 to:
Gamearena BF2 server 41ms Internode BF2 server 28ms Thanks for investigating anyway John. Keep enjoying your holiday. Comment (1)
If you are looking for testers then I can test from Central Coast (Wyong) to Sydney.
Martin Comment (1)
I have been waiting a long time for you to release your HSPDA at an affordable price. Maybe it is betterto wait till the price have dropped to an affordable level. I think there is a big demand for HSPDA at the price that you proposed. Like all the poster before me, I too am willing to test your HSPDA product
Comment (1)
HSPA sounds great, but isn't quite practical as a replacement for ADSL2+ in urban areas yet. Maybe when an ACTUAL 7.2mbps implementation comes out...
Comment (1)
I also would love to trial a mobile wireless solution between locations South West Sydney (Work) and Western Sydney (Home)
Comment (1)
Send an email to:
j.linton@exetel.com.au with your town/suburb, postcode and area. If there is HSPA coverage in your area we will avail ourselves of your offer. (you can check on the Exetel web site for what coverage there is now. Comments (6)
|
Calendar
QuicksearchArchivesCategoriesBlog AdministrationExternal PHP Application |