LebGeeks

Kassem

Re: Feedback for 3G

Will there be any "unlimited quota" at certain times/day?

I strongly doubt that could happen before broadband via fiber optics.

Mahmoud Brk

Re: Feedback for 3G

What about pings on 3.9G, is it better than 3.5G, or should I forget about online gaming on wireless connection?

EDIT: I've just read this, it's a review for the 21Mbps HSPA+ in South Africa when they switched on it before the World Cup

During the testing a large file was downloaded via FTP, a speed test was performed and a high definition video was streamed, and the performance was stable with smooth streaming of the video and a speed test performance of 8 Mbps.

One of the most impressive aspects of the new HSPA+ service was the low latency. On-net latency ranged between 20ms and 30ms, with ping times to the MyBroadband service (on the MTN network) ranging between 25ms and 40ms. International latency was equally impressive with ping times to Google.com ranging between 200ms and 210ms.

The latency and overall performance of the network is suitable for online gaming, and the Vodacom engineers pointed out that they could not find any online games which could even start to stress the new HSPA+ network.

I hope we don't get screwed by MTC Touch and Alfa :)

Last edited by Mahmoud Brk (May 9 2011)

elchebib

Re: Feedback for 3G

What about pings on 3.9G, is it better than 3.5G, or should I forget about online gaming on wireless connection?

EDIT: I've just read this, it's a review for the 21Mbps HSPA+ in South Africa when they switched on it before the World Cup

During the testing a large file was downloaded via FTP, a speed test was performed and a high definition video was streamed, and the performance was stable with smooth streaming of the video and a speed test performance of 8 Mbps.

One of the most impressive aspects of the new HSPA+ service was the low latency. On-net latency ranged between 20ms and 30ms, with ping times to the MyBroadband service (on the MTN network) ranging between 25ms and 40ms. International latency was equally impressive with ping times to Google.com ranging between 200ms and 210ms.

The latency and overall performance of the network is suitable for online gaming, and the Vodacom engineers pointed out that they could not find any online games which could even start to stress the new HSPA+ network.

I hope we don't get screwed by MTC Touch and Alfa :)

Online gaming = wired connection. Period.

Online games require very low latencies (<100 ms) and this can only be achieved by wired connections. I really doubt we're going to get 200 ms latencies with the 3G network they're installing.

You have to think about something very important? Where are they going to get the international bandwidth from to cope with these huge speeds? Both IMEWE and Cadmos are installed but not activated yet due to the childish bickering between MoT and Ogero. If these cables are not activated by the time 3G is turned on, you can be sure that we're not going to see such speeds at all. However, I guess videocalling within Lebanon would be great but internet access will be severely limited in speed and quota.

Mahmoud Brk

Re: Feedback for 3G

Online gaming = wired connection. Period.

Online games require very low latencies (<100 ms) and this can only be achieved by wired connections. I really doubt we're going to get 200 ms latencies with the 3G network they're installing.

You have to think about something very important? Where are they going to get the international bandwidth from to cope with these huge speeds? Both IMEWE and Cadmos are installed but not activated yet due to the childish bickering between MoT and Ogero. If these cables are not activated by the time 3G is turned on, you can be sure that we're not going to see such speeds at all. However, I guess videocalling within Lebanon would be great but internet access will be severely limited in speed and quota.

Umm, maybe they're postponing the activation of IMEWE and Cadmus till the work with the infrastructure of the 3G is done..but then DSL would be better, wouldn't be?

elchebib

Re: Feedback for 3G

Online gaming = wired connection. Period.

Online games require very low latencies (<100 ms) and this can only be achieved by wired connections. I really doubt we're going to get 200 ms latencies with the 3G network they're installing.

You have to think about something very important? Where are they going to get the international bandwidth from to cope with these huge speeds? Both IMEWE and Cadmos are installed but not activated yet due to the childish bickering between MoT and Ogero. If these cables are not activated by the time 3G is turned on, you can be sure that we're not going to see such speeds at all. However, I guess videocalling within Lebanon would be great but internet access will be severely limited in speed and quota.

Umm, maybe they're postponing the activation of IMEWE and Cadmus till the work with the infrastructure of the 3G is done..but then DSL would be better, wouldn't be?

Nope man. Unfortunately, its bickering between MoT and Ogero. In addition, why would they postpone the activation of these cables? At the very least, activating them would drastically improve our home DSL connections. Latencies would be much better even at the same speeds.
Its simply bickering between the two that has no end until the new government is formed to deal with this issue.

Raficoo

Re: Feedback for 3G

I guess there's two things we can take note of in this article:
"Roula Abou Daher, technical director of Zain, the Kuwaiti operator in charge of network-MTC Touch, said that 850 issuers 3.5G would be spread over all Lebanese territory, including 200 bases 3.9G, allowing speeds Download up to 42 megabits per second (Mbps), and 50 stations (LTE future 4G) for maximum download speeds of 173 Mb / s."

I wonder if that means they plan on setting LTE soon :D

"For the mobile phone, the download volume allowed downward and upward could reach 2 gigabytes, for laptops, it might be about 15 to 20 gigabytes"
I do wonder if those numbers are for one side(Download) or divided by 2(Download with upload).. hope it's the first case :(   but o well better than nothing ;)

"could reach 2 gigabytes" for phones < I'm definitely ok with this ! :D
maybe I will finally able to put my phone's potential to use on the web :)

Guess we're just gonna have to wait till 12 and see what Alfa has to say ;)

nuclearcat

VISP sysadmin

Re: Feedback for 3G

MTN?
http://www.mtn.co.za/MTNServices/broadb … tions.aspx
Uncapped Pro
*Fair Use Policy 10GB
R1999.00, i guess it is ZAR, $296

2GB - R389 = $57.6

Do you believe guys, that in Lebanon it will be better offers?
Yes 21 Mbps. But price...
It is while http://vanilla.co.za/dsl.php
512Kbit uncapped cost 299ZAR = $44, and you can download on it there up to 59GB.

Interpolate now Lebanese DSL costs to higher costs of running LTE/3G/3.5G/whatever.

Check prices here also
http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/01/lapt … and-value/
Notice: all unlimited is WiMax and T-Mobile HSPA+. But... speed throttling - Yes. FUP.
Cheapest is $80/10GB(in US where traffic is supercheap and there is fiber laying everywhere). And i think you wont see even such price in Lebanon in next 2-4 years.

Last edited by nuclearcat (May 10 2011)

xterm

Moderator

Re: Feedback for 3G

Don't hate me but, screw quota! Gimme speed and latency!

MegaCool

Re: Feedback for 3G

@nuclearcat who cares about some figures from a shitty provider in South Africa? Still I believe it'll be a better option than my mediocre 256K plan from VISP.

@xterm are you kidding? you know that proper speed will eat you quota for breakfast, right? I say enough with the quota BS and 2Mbps will be more than enough :D.

xterm

Moderator

Re: Feedback for 3G

@nuclearcat who cares about some figures from a shitty provider in South Africa? Still I believe it'll be a better option than my mediocre 256K plan from VISP.

@xterm are you kidding? you know that proper speed will eat you quota for breakfast, right? I say enough with the quota BS and 2Mbps will be more than enough :D.

It doesn't matter MegaCool. When I'm online it's for a reason and I want to get things done fast so I get more time to spend with my family and do other things as well.

elchebib

Re: Feedback for 3G

After the close of his speech, Nahhas proceeded to test-run the 3.9G network, downloading a 60 MB video clip by Lebanese diva Fairuz off youtube.com in less than five minutes.

60 MB in less than 5 minutes???? Isn't that a bit high for 60 MB only???? I mean, they're advertising speeds of 42mbps. Shouldn't it download in like a max of 1 minute???
My guess its the effect of the low international bandwidth.... YAAY....

Kassem

Re: Feedback for 3G

After the close of his speech, Nahhas proceeded to test-run the 3.9G network, downloading a 60 MB video clip by Lebanese diva Fairuz off youtube.com in less than five minutes.

60 MB in less than 5 minutes???? Isn't that a bit high for 60 MB only???? I mean, they're advertising speeds of 42mbps. Shouldn't it download in like a max of 1 minute???
My guess its the effect of the low international bandwidth.... YAAY....

On al-akhbar they say it is 600MB. Link

Monkey D. Luffy

Re: Feedback for 3G

After the close of his speech, Nahhas proceeded to test-run the 3.9G network, downloading a 60 MB video clip by Lebanese diva Fairuz off youtube.com in less than five minutes.

60 MB in less than 5 minutes???? Isn't that a bit high for 60 MB only???? I mean, they're advertising speeds of 42mbps. Shouldn't it download in like a max of 1 minute???
My guess its the effect of the low international bandwidth.... YAAY....

What is your source?
600MB in 5min that is a speed I never dreamed of in Lebanon :P
Hope Kassem is right on this one (:
My only fear is the pricing :S

maba723

Re: Feedback for 3G

After the close of his speech, Nahhas proceeded to test-run the 3.9G network, downloading a 60 MB video clip by Lebanese diva Fairuz off youtube.com in less than five minutes.

60 MB in less than 5 minutes???? Isn't that a bit high for 60 MB only???? I mean, they're advertising speeds of 42mbps. Shouldn't it download in like a max of 1 minute???
My guess its the effect of the low international bandwidth.... YAAY....

What is your source?
600MB in 5min that is a speed I never dreamed of in Lebanon :P
Hope Kassem is right on this one (:
My only fear is the pricing :S

60, not 600

xterm

Moderator

Re: Feedback for 3G

60 in 5 minutes?! I already download it in ~4 minutes.

Anyways, I wonder if this is a ruse:

They say, 42mbps for everyone. Perhaps they mean, 42mbps over everyone. :-)

cnicolaou

Re: Feedback for 3G

Off topic but a must say:

It's always good to have geeks to explain those numbers to friends and relatives. (60mb != 600mb and is too little)

Lebanese tend to buy any shiny, full of features, new product without asking too much

ac1d

Banned

Re: Feedback for 3G

Side question: how good is 3G or cellular data concerning latency?

Its terrible...just like our current latency with almost any connection

ac1d

Banned

Re: Feedback for 3G

60 MB in less than 5 minutes???? Isn't that a bit high for 60 MB only???? I mean, they're advertising speeds of 42mbps. Shouldn't it download in like a max of 1 minute???
My guess its the effect of the low international bandwidth.... YAAY....

What is your source?
600MB in 5min that is a speed I never dreamed of in Lebanon :P
Hope Kassem is right on this one (:
My only fear is the pricing :S

60, not 600

60 Mb in 5 mins=200 KB/sec = 1.6 Mbps speed
But the packages will be SO small in terms of quota...DSL > 3G     
Fix the damn DSL issues and then go to 3G...sigh

Kassem

Re: Feedback for 3G

What is your source?
600MB in 5min that is a speed I never dreamed of in Lebanon :P
Hope Kassem is right on this one (:
My only fear is the pricing :S

60, not 600

60 Mb in 5 mins=200 KB/sec = 1.6 Mbps speed
But the packages will be SO small in terms of quota...DSL > 3G     
Fix the damn DSL issues and then go to 3G...sigh

But there were talks of a 15GB to 20GB quota limit. That's not what we are looking for, but still that's a a great improvement until they get the fiber optics network ready.

eliefares

Re: Feedback for 3G

The file was 600 MB. #Dies
http://www.al-akhbar.com/node/11754

rolf

Re: Feedback for 3G

So what.. the ministry of telecom with all the power and money they have, a multi-billion dollar international corporation (siemens, alcatel, ericsson or something), multi-millionaire oligopoly cell providers and their team, all got together and ran a demonstration and were able to download a 600 MB file in under 5 minutes.
woohoo.
It's like we reached the moon.
wow.

Last edited by rolf (May 10 2011)

hussam

Re: Feedback for 3G

Speaking of 3G connections, anyone read today's Dilbert? http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2011-05-10/

nuclearcat

VISP sysadmin

Re: Feedback for 3G

@nuclearcat who cares about some figures from a shitty provider in South Africa? Still I believe it'll be a better option than my mediocre 256K plan from VISP.

@xterm are you kidding? you know that proper speed will eat you quota for breakfast, right? I say enough with the quota BS and 2Mbps will be more than enough :D.

I gave examples from US, if you read well.

Raficoo

Re: Feedback for 3G

Ahh! was it 60 or 600Mb? :/
but still, if it was 600, to be downloaded in less than 5 minutes would mean ~2MB/s x 8 = 16Mbit/s and 42Mbit/s should mean a max of 5.25MB/s(which clearly didn't happen in this demonstration)
s basically, I can see that there's the power to transmit bandwidth faster, but not enough of the bandwidth itself available lol

but even 200KB/s is better than the max 27KB/s I have right now : |

Let's see what Alfa will say in 2 days(I wouldn't be surprised if it is the same as what MTC has said though)

Kassem

Re: Feedback for 3G

From Minister Nahhas' Official Facebook page:

It is 3.5G on Alfa and 3.9 G on MTC for the time being and as a first step.This difference results from the fact that although both MTC and ALFA networks fulfill the general technical requirements set by the ministry, such technical specifications may differ based on different planning options. Importantly, both networks are designed to be continuously upgradeable, including to LTE, in order to meet the growth in demand.

This is actually interesting. I thought both are going to be doing the same exact upgrades. Could that open up the door of competition?!