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Thread ID: 143602	2017-02-25 20:25:00	Spark wireless broadband problems	kenj (9738)	PC World Chat

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1432216	2017-02-25 20:25:00	4G came to my area a couple of weeks ago and as fibre is 2 years away I thought I would give it a go. My ADSL connection gave me 14.6 down, 1.21 up with a ping of 37. Friday, I installed all (simple.... just had to plug it in) and my first test gave me 8.16 down, 0.13 up, ping 52. Usable but not great. Pages a little slower to load, but the worst effect was our home 2 handpiece DECT cordless phone. Hopeless!! Saturday, same in the morning but dropped off as the day went on until mid afternoon it was down to 2.26, 0.08, 56. Phones completely inoperable. Got mad with it and discussed with Spark about going back to ADSL. No problems and it will be done on Monday - Thursday next week. At least the ADSL has pretty consistent speeds. Sunday, tested speed at 6.50am 44.69, 10.42, 37. Then an hour later 15.84, 1.32, 43. Looks like it is good until the demand kicks in. I note that I am just inside the "Good" area on Spark's coverage map. Could that be a reason Pctek, I see from your posting on Geek zone, that you are on it. Do you have any problems with It? Or anyone else? Ken :(	kenj (9738)
1432217	2017-02-25 21:30:00	This is mine: Speedtest . net DOWNLOAD 25 . 91 Mbps UPLOAD 40 . 44 Mbps Sparks One Download 47mbps Upload 40 . 75mbps Early this morning download was 40 ish then about 8am went back to slower download . Google tells me it's congestion . I rang them and the girl got me to power off while she did something and it made no difference . She said she'd escalate it . I can live with that, it's not worse than ADSL, my worry is will it get worse as more people sign up though? My phone doesn't seem to have any problems . They did say I was in a good area . I guess if yours drops that much it's crap . I'd probably swap back too if it was that bad .	pctek (84)
1432218	2017-02-25 22:24:00	Cell sites tend to run of a 1G connection, they could have several but I think a large number just have the 1. That's shared between everyone so if you are in a densely populated area or near somewhere where a lot of people might be using their phones performance will suffer. Also the way mobile technology works means the connection from your phone back to the tower also slows down as more people connect to the same tower. Even so I've seen some pretty good numbers off wireless broadband or just straight out 4G cellphones. Really if you have a reasonable ADSL connection over 10 down / 1 up there's not much reason to go wireless and put up with more variable speeds and data caps, what it's good for is marginal ADSL areas like where my Sister lives. They get about 3Mbs down on ADSL and I tested 30 on 4G, they still won't do it because of the data cap though. Sitting here at the time of this post my spark cellphone tests 18 down, 10 up. That's one of the worst results I've seen on it, normally get 25~40 down and 10~15 up. Of course I don't normally test it at home because it's on wi-fi here so most of my results are from other places.	dugimodo (138)
1432219	2017-02-26 07:57:00	Tonight around 7pm down to 3.5 down, 0.02 up. That's me finished with it. The idea was good nut the practicality poor. Thanks... Ken	kenj (9738)
1432220	2017-02-26 23:18:00	Yes Kenj, yours is rubbish. I had a talk with them. They stop signing people up when it starts to get congested. Their idea of congested is 1mbps or lower however. Uhuh, not my idea of congested. I've had 7mbps to 41mbps. Average of 20. Thats fine, I can live with that. If it should go sub 5, or even be 7 all the time, then no. So I got them to take me off contract so if it goes to crap later (my idea of crap) I can just swap back to adsl with no penalty. Vdsl? Why bother? If I was to do that I might as well go fibre. Fibre? Sure, when A)Price drops to same or less than adsl b)I stop hearing about bad installs. But I don't care too much about super speeds. All I care is that what I have is reasonable and consistent. Mainly the consistent. It's why I stuck with adsl with them for 6 years. Other than a couple of outages and some weird issue, speed has been consistent, within 5mbps or so with traffic. It would be silly to go to worse. And I'm not interested in hassles with fibre seeing as I am not streaming or netflixing or whatever. So, for now, it's fine. My brother is giving it a go. His adsl is 3mbps, so may be good for him, no fibre or anything at his address yet. If it's worse, easy enough for him to swap back, they did the no contract with him too.	pctek (84)
1432221	2017-02-26 23:56:00	Consistency is the answer. When it is fast it is great, when it is slow it is really bad. I tested an area where I pick up kids this morning and got 60, 12, ping 36. Maybe your brother should see what he gets on his phone if it is 4G capable. That's what I should have done. :) Ken	kenj (9738)
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