Slow Three iPhone Tethering Speeds

Willem-de-Blois

Sorry if this has already been posted. I am posting this message quickly as I am at work and I currently don’t have the internet at home for reasons that I will make clear.

I recently moved into a privately rented flat which doesn’t have an internet connection. As I was already out of contract with my previous mobile phone company, I decided to go for 3’s One plan of “All You Can Eat” internet (the fair use policy is actually around 80GB per month) to solve my domestic internet issue and to get an iPhone 4s while I’m at it.

The iPhone itself is far better than I thought it would be but last night, I decided to test out the tethering/ personal hotspot feature at home. The connection was very slow and erratic and when I looked, I saw that I was only getting 54mbps!

The 3 salesman claimed that 3 gets awards for its mobile internet speeds and when I looked online, consumers seemed to give 3 the thumbs up. I had a full 3G signal and a full wifi signal yet the speed was so dire, I couldn’t load up a text web page.

It this a problem with my iPhone’s or laptop’s settings or is this a problem that 3 has with its network?

Any one else have this problem?

reclusive46

Willem-de-Blois wrote: »

Sorry if this has already been posted. I am posting this message quickly as I am at work and I currently don’t have the internet at home for reasons that I will make clear.

I recently moved into a privately rented flat which doesn’t have an internet connection. As I was already out of contract with my previous mobile phone company, I decided to go for 3’s One plan of “All You Can Eat” internet (the fair use policy is actually around 80GB per month) to solve my domestic internet issue and to get an iPhone 4s while I’m at it.

The iPhone itself is far better than I thought it would be but last night, I decided to test out the tethering/ personal hotspot feature at home. The connection was very slow and erratic and when I looked, I saw that I was only getting 54mbps!

The 3 salesman claimed that 3 gets awards for its mobile internet speeds and when I looked online, consumers seemed to give 3 the thumbs up. I had a full 3G signal and a full wifi signal yet the speed was so dire, I couldn’t load up a text web page.

It this a problem with my iPhone’s or laptop’s settings or is this a problem that 3 has with its network?

Any one else have this problem?

Oh only 54???? Doesn't seem very slow to me.

Willem-de-Blois

reclusive46 wrote: »

Oh only 54???? Doesn't seem very slow to me.

I couldn't load a page and it would disconnect very often. In other words, it was unusable despite the apparent full 3G and wifi signals.

I wonder if buying a USB cable to tether with would help.

Neil49

I agree with reclusive46.

My landline broadband is giving me 3 mbps and that's on a good day.

I'd gladly switch if I could get 54!

Edit

I've just seen your reply. I use a usb connection when tethering (on O2) but the slow loading can be down to the fact that you are loading full internet pages and not those that are cut down and specifically designed for mobiles.

Willem-de-Blois

It seems strange that with full 3G and wifi signals and with the connection displaying 56mb/s, that I would barely be able to load up one page.

I can't comment about full web pages taking longer to load up when filtered through a mobile because I didn't get past a google search before the web connection switched off. For the rest of the evening it was only connected to the local network.

Willem-de-Blois

DazMatic wrote: »

Are you sure you aren't looking at the wireless connection to the iPhone from your PC and it doesn't actually say 54Mbps not 54mbps, which would be my guess. If you want to actually check the internet speed you're getting then give something like the internetfrog.com a try.
Thanks
Daz.

I think you are right but I'll check when I get home.

As things stand, I won't be able to run the Internet Frog test from my laptop tonight owing to the weak connection but I ran the test from my iPhone and got a DL speed of 3.52Mbps. This compares quite respectably to the office's broadband of 4.37Mbps.

So as it stands, despite a full wifi and 3G signal and a DL speed of 3.52Mbps, I can't load up a page with my tethered laptop.

Does the solution on this apple forum thread make any sense?

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3507844?start=0&tstart=0

loulou123

I use 3s one plan and can tether fine via WiFi or using a USB cable, but it can be a bit slow at peak times, I can still load pages fine, but streaming films etc doesn't work in peak times.

I'm only getting approx 4 - 5 mbps at the most (usually more like 3 - 3.5) so its not very faff, but perfectly usable.

BUT that's using my HTC phone, if I try and tether using husbands Samsung (also on 3s one plan) its SO slow, so maybe the phone has something to do with it?

Oldzskool

I'm on 3's one plan using an iPhone 4s and I also get slow speeds of less than half a meg at times.

If I use personal hotspot my laptop receives good speeds for 5 mins or so maybe longer but eventually I can't load pages and notice the laptop is getting 'limited access', I'm on windows 7.

I've tried jailbreak apps like pdanet and mywi which have proved more stable in that I don't get 'limited access' but again after 15 mins and sometimes even sooner the speeds grind to a halt after being generally very good to start with.

Is there anything I can do to get consistent speeds over long periods or am being 'throttled' by 3. 3 say they don't throttle but do manage traffic between 6pm and 12am. I experience my issues at all times of the day.