iPhone 4 Speed Test – Telstra vs Optus
Over the weekend, I had two iPhone 4 devices to play with. One with a Telstra SIM, one with an Optus SIM (MicroSIM to be precise)
As you may know, I haven’t yet decided which carrier to choose – should I decide to get an iPhone 4.
How did they perform?I did some random tests at home, and found Optus to be performing much better than my old iPhone 3G. This is because the iPhone 4 uses HSDPA data for the first time this is better speed, and also the iPhone 4 as I understand it uses the 900MHz spectrum which the old iPhones did not, and as such reception is better (in regional areas this will be great, as the lower the freqency the better the signal travels distances).
So, this morning, between home and the office, I did a vast number of tests – using the SpeedTest App, firstly on the Sydney Server, then choosing Canberra which is not directly hosted by Optus.
I did a LOT of tests on the drive from Northern Sydney (Hornsby area) to Artarmon.
Basically, constant checks most of the way.
I was stunned by the results. For the first time in a long time I was seeing actual speed via 3G, 4Mbs regularly.
MOST IMPRESSIVE was Telstra showing uploads at high rates like its downloads, unlike Optus who’s uploads are more like we are used to where they are clearly slower than downloads.
I removed the three worst for each telco, just to get rid of any issues that might have been there for each.
iPhone 4 Speed Tests - Optus vs Telstra
The top straight line (light Blue) is Optus’ Download average – they highest. Next is the Aqua Blue line, Telstra’s Download average, then closely followed by the Orange which is Telstra Upload Average, and down the bottom is the pinkish line, Optus’ Upload average
Overall the Telstra parity between Up and Download is impressive, as is their consistent speed, Optus while fast was also sometimes inconsistent. However, this is markedly better than it has been in the past.
Now to do some sort of call drop out test!
Rounded totals:
| Telstra Down | Telstra Up | Optus Down | Optus Up | |
| AVERAGE | 2809.31 | 2634.96 | 3135.47 | 1428.56 |
| MIN | 874 | 407 | 419 | 376 |
| MAX | 6269 | 3592 | 6112 | 1717 |
(*All figures are kpbs)
| Telstra Down |
Telstra Up | Optus Down | Optus Up |
| 1840 | 2274 | 1447 | 1703 |
| 1094 | 2863 | 2256 | 1540 |
| 1517 | 489 | 1940 | 1596 |
| 3699 | 407 | 1348 | 1606 |
| 1574 | 1088 | 2491 | 1581 |
| 2992 | 3002 | 800 | 1509 |
| 874 | 3366 | 2072 | 1335 |
| 1662 | 1639 | 2410 | 1576 |
| 2659 | 3386 | 2578 | 1584 |
| 5158 | 2633 | 3936 | 1428 |
| 3824 | 2870 | 3873 | 1586 |
| 3564 | 3484 | 4573 | 1628 |
| 3827 | 3478 | 4357 | 1426 |
| 3881 | 3561 | 4078 | 1575 |
| 2754 | 3401 | 4923 | 1487 |
| 3772 | 2284 | 4854 | 1552 |
| 2654 | 2902 | 855 | 671 |
| 2542 | 3281 | 2538 | 1441 |
| 1778 | 1984 | 2365 | 1553 |
| 968 | 2013 | 4482 | 927 |
| 3742 | 2967 | 1673 | 1583 |
| 2366 | 3046 | 3452 | 1614 |
| 5240 | 2530 | 3436 | 1525 |
| 4476 | 2954 | 2914 | 1579 |
| 5519 | 2835 | 3401 | 1012 |
| 3436 | 3308 | 3749 | 1413 |
| 4011 | 2546 | 4529 | 1618 |
| 3379 | 2369 | 4887 | 1601 |
| 1058 | 2781 | 4970 | 1639 |
| 4070 | 3146 | 6112 | 1645 |
| 4290 | 1748 | 1961 | 930 |
| 1723 | 1257 | 1287 | 1346 |
| 1505 | 1835 | 1046 | 1571 |
| 878 | 2495 | 1578 | 1601 |
| 1337 | 1497 | 2015 | 1612 |
| 1576 | 2776 | 4605 | 1395 |
| 2071 | 3359 | 4701 | 1601 |
| 2554 | 2171 | 419 | 376 |
| 4973 | 3205 | 3393 | 1561 |
| 1504 | 2802 | 3038 | 1689 |
| 1215 | 3391 | 3036 | 1499 |
| 1849 | 3592 | 4137 | 1537 |
| 880 | 2495 | 952 | 671 |
| 989 | 1422 | 2313 | 1316 |
| 1493 | 1220 | 1663 | 1334 |
| 3309 | 3453 | 628 | 550 |
| 1925 | 3480 | 894 | 1544 |
| 4843 | 3266 | 2374 | 1717 |
| 2662 | 3506 | 5714 | 1599 |
| 5703 | 3543 | 4458 | 1621 |
| 3217 | 3099 | 4263 | 1477 |
| 1841 | 3167 | 4183 | 1430 |
| 6259 | 3076 | 4949 | 1586 |
| 3489 | 3323 | 2966 | 1244 |
| 3727 | 3121 | 3023 | 1545 |
| 4050 | 3460 | 3943 | 1575 |
| 2320 | 2972 | 3841 | 1574 |
| 2096 | 3171 | 3726 | 1592 |
| 5894 | 2689 | 5588 | 1517 |
| 6269 | 3317 | 3678 | 981 |
| 6256 | 3324 | 848 | 1319 |
| 1082 | 1113 | 3184 | 1378 |
| 1026 | 1426 | 2735 | 1541 |
| 1060 | 1707 | 3138 | 1366 |
| 2041 | 2549 | 3243 | 1024 |
| 1118 | 1805 | 3956 | 1414 |
| 1078 | 2271 | 4087 | 1459 |
| 1001 | 2187 | 4350 | 1517 |
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Trevor Long, Your Tech Life. Your Tech Life said: iPhone 4 Speed Tests – Telstra vs Optus – http://bit.ly/aVcPFY – My thoughts… [...]
Trevor, as an avid radio listener who has made the switch to digital, one thing that bugs me is bad audio quality such as reporters using the mobile phone to file reports and do interviews in the field. I thought that with the high speed mobile network we now have surely we can do better. I decided to dig a bit and found that there are a couple of apps on the iPhone to stream high quality audio back to a studio from the field named “Report-IT Live” I downloaded the Lite version but haven't tested it yet. It seems it may require some hardware back at the studio?
Wouldn't an app like this be pretty economical for stations to improve the quality of their audio of their reporters? I see that in a related way, Sky News is using a 'stream box' to do live crosses during the election campaign with limited effectiveness – video being much harder to do than just audio.
Surely the upload bandwidth you quote in this story would be more than adequate for this app? Have you seen this used in the field and why wouldn't radio stations use it? I'd be interested in your thoughts.
what about latency? This has far more of an effect on my daily use of my iPhone 3gs
[...] iPhone 4 Speed Test – Telstra vs Optus | Your Tech Life Posted in Iphone | Tags: avid-radio, bad-audio, better-speed, daily, iphone, made-the-switch, [...]