Telecom XT has made bold claims about their new mobile network being “faster in more places”, which has apparently been independently verified. I was interested to know how good performance in Dunedin was, as this is where I live, and I had heard of a lot of problems with Vodafone 3G coverage in Dunedin. As an example, a friend once told me that he could make a video call from one corner of his house, but loses 3G coverage anywhere else in his house. Coverage has probably improved since then, but having acquired an iPhone 3G after a long time using an original iPhone, I decided to test speeds around various locations in Dunedin City for comparison.

XT vs. Vodafone 3G Test Methodology

I took one iPhone 3G, running 3.0 jailbroken but without any jailbroken apps installed except for SBSettings. The iPhone had the XT carrier bundle installed, made by my good friends at iphonewzealand.co.nz. I used my Vodafone SIM card, and ran this against an XT SIM card, both on prepaid. I ran the speedtest.net iPhone app on one SIM, then switched SIMs and ran the test again, from the exact same location. Sometimes the Vodafone SIM was run first; other times it was the XT SIM. Before running the Vodafone SIM, I ensured that the 3G on the phone was reset in order to eliminate any problems the device may have switching from 2G back up to 3G after dropping back.

Click after the break for the results:

Results

I started the test at the location that most interested me – deep down in the depths of the Meridian Mall food court. This basement bunker is known for it’s bad mobile signal, but in real world testing we can’t always find an open location with direct line of sight to the sky. Hundreds of people eat here every day, and how good their mobile coverage is while they eat is of some importance.

To give you an idea of how bad the signal can be down here, my 2G Vodafone mobile usually drops out completely when walking through the foodcourt to where it joins Arthur Barnetts. This is where I chose to conduct the first test.

First of all, my thanks to Whitcoulls Meridian for supplying me with a paperclip *ahem* SIM removal tool, which I had forgotten to bring with me. I sat in those comfortable couches outside Whitcoulls and proceeded to perform my first test:

These results speak for themselves. Regardless of the speed of the network, this just shows how good the coverage of the 850Mhz XT network is deep down in the basement of this building.

Next, I had some commitments at the Edgar Centre, the largest indoor sports centre in the Southern Hemisphere and home of the Lion Foundation Arena where the local basketball and netball teams play their big games. This is where the next test was run:

Next I decided to do a “Speed Test XTreme”. Instead of just a usual boring speed test, I wanted to do the next test while be thrusted forward extreme speeds! Well, 60km/hour to be exact, and within the legal speed limit of Portsmouth Drive. And no, I didn’t speed-test-and-drive. Thanks to the co-operation of my chauffeur, I was able to do the speed test completely legally.

Unfortunately the dizzying speeds confused me and I did not capture a screenshot for the XT mobile test. Apologies for the difference in formatting for this result:

Next I headed for the Dunedin Chinese Garden. This authentic Chinese Garden is the first of its kind to be built in the Southern Hemisphere and proving to be a popular attraction for visitors to the city. I sat in the central pagoda under a small roof but in an otherwise open area surrounded by the pond. Here I also ran my first GPRS test for those that are interested to know what these speeds are so that you can compare them to 2 Degrees EDGE performance.

My penultimate stop-off was the University campus, where I sat on the union lawn:

At this stage I was running out of data on my $1/day with Vodafone, so did no further GPRS testing. The final stop was the Octagon, where I sat on the benches outside the Information Centre:

Conclusion and Discussion

It is clear from these tests that as of 7 August 2009, an iPhone runs “faster in more Dunedin places”. It is beyond the scope of this blog to discuss the methodology of the Speedtest.net app, but a friend has questioned the accuracy of the app. I noticed that the XT tests consumed a far greater amount of data compared to Vodafone, meaning that the tests are not based on the speed of downloading a file of a specified size. However I do not really understand how this works so will leave it to others to discuss. All I know is that the Speedtest.net app is used widely for comparison of iPhone speeds.

While the download speeds for XT appear to be clearly faster than Vodafone 3G, I am confused as to why the upload speeds and pings for XT are just as universally slower. I am not a telecommunications expert so will await the discussion from others about this to learn the reason behind it.

Finally, it has been brought to my attention that there is a known problem when using an iPhone 3G on Vodafone 3G, and that this is under investigation. I have been lead to believe that the responsibility for this lies in Apple’s domain rather than Vodafone, but I do not have the details. Therefore I have been advised that my testing are not valid.

In my defence, I would not have performed these tests had I been given valid reasons why it should not be done at this time. However there has been lack of clear information, as well lack of response when I have asked for clarification from Vodafone employees on this issue. The lay person and lay customer can only work with the information that he or she is provided with, and these results are a snapshot in time that I have compiled with that information.

Today I popped in the ABBA disc and pondered whether it would be possible for the game to be patched to include this feature. As the PS3 downloaded a 50Mb update for SingStar that added Polish language of all things, I thought that surely voice control could be patched into the game if there was the will. An internet search soon revealed that such an update was in fact made available all the way back in April 2009. So how come I wasn’t voice controlling?

After the Polish update started, I sang a few songs and realised that I still wasn’t able to use voice control. So I had a play around in the SingStore, and found that hidden away in a less than obvious place, there was a “free” patch that I could “add to my cart” that would give me voice control. This defies all logic – an actually useful 4Mb update is put in some obscure location in the SingStore where I was unaware of it for months, while a 50Mb Polish language update is enforced upon me. I hate pointless updates.

Disclaimer: I have nothing against Polish people. I’m sure they are very nice.