After getting that list of Globe HSPA+ sites within Metro Manila, I took the task of finding out one and do some tests of my own.
The target location is Brgy. San Isidro in Makati. The idea was to circle around San Isidro and take sample speed tests and then move towards the area where the HSPA+ is supposed to be and do the final one.
This will give us an idea what the real-world coverage of the HSPA+ sites and how fast can you get when you’re within coverage.
We used a regular Globe Prepaid SIM running on SuperSurf 50 inserted into a Huawei E353 (this is the Smart Bro Rocket actually, which is open line).
Here’s our collection of speedtests around the area:
Taken at Paseo de Magallanes in front of Starbucks.
Taken at the Shell Gas Station beside Marvin’s Plaza along Pasong Tamo, Brgy. Pio del Pilar.
Taken at the back of BPI Buendia corner Pasong Tamo.
Taken at the Caltex Station in La Paz, Brgy. San Antonio.
Taken beside Cash & Carry Makati along Osmena Highway.
Taken at the Sea Oil gas station (where the Welcome to San Isidro post is) in the corner of Batangas Road and Buendia.
I finally found the HSPA+ signal — it was very sneaky because the Huawei E353 was only able to detect it in a very small area (along Batangas Road, between Rockefeller and Zanzibar St.) with a span of around 20 meters.
And our speed test for this HSPA+ site:
A consistent ~2.5Mbps (tried it 5 times).
The highest result for download speed we got was 5.33Mbps and the highest upload is 400Kbps — and that’s just on an HSDPA signal, even beating the speed tests on HSPA+.
Remember that explanation between 2G. vs 3G. vs 4G. before? These speed results prove that point.
My previous interview with Peter Bithos of Globe gave me the idea that I can just get any open line or unlocked HSPA+ capable device and I would be able to benefit from their HSPA+ roll-out. My usual Globe Tattoo speed tests would not give me anything near 2Mbps but with the Huawei E353, I am able to get pretty decent to good results. And this is for the same rate as the regular prepaid internet rates (on SuperSurf).
The Tonino Lamborghini Tattoo is on postpaid and might have different results. In my correspondence with @chuckiedreyfus, he shared that he is able to download from P2P with speeds in excess of 500KB/s. However, my own test with a Globe Prepaid SIM card and the Huawei E353 barely got me past 10KB/s (so I guess the prepaid is throttled).
This article originally appeared at - yugatech
