A few weeks ago we promised you that we would follow up our review of the Cell C Speedstick with some real world speed tests, and here you go. I ran these tests during different times, and also at a few different locations. Overall the speeds are very quick, but there is a definite spike in network speed at off peak hours, a few times my connection reached above 10Mbps, which is great considering SA still has a maximum of 10Mbps of ADSL lines…
In terms of reception I was pretty lucky – I used it in quite a few areas in the Cape Town / Bellville / Stellenbosch areas, and also to a trip to Pretoria, and not once did I have reception problems. I did however once get only EDGE reception in Durbanville (or D’Urbanvale to be precise), despite Cell C’s map indicating full HSPA reception where I was standing – maybe I should tell Trevor eh?
I also found that the reception can be very sensitive – for example at work I found that connecting the modem to a laptop above my table gave me full HSPA speed, whereas connecting to a desktop below my table gave only a WCDMA connection. Maybe your experience would be different. But to be honest – in 90% of my use I had full HSPA+ speeds.
At present I am sharing a PDF file with my Speedtest.net results so far, based on connections to Johannesburg and London. Information includes download and upload speeds, and ping times. I also check how long Youtube videos had to buffer before playing (using standard definition videos). You will also find my signal strength and location info.
Once again I will try to keep this updated over time…
