Wireless broadband customers will have more choices very soon, as Telecom launches its EV-DO Rev A network upgrade today.
Rev A promises 3.1Mbit/s downloads and 1.8Mbit/s uploads, with lowered latency to boot. This compares to 3.6Mbit/s for Vodafone’s HSDPA, which has 384kbit/s uploads and a latency in the 110-130ms region.
Computerworld will be at today’s launch of Rev A, and we hope to be able to do some quick performance testing on the day and post results on our website: computerworld.co.nz.
Meanwhile, GSM-mobile competitor Vodafone has quietly upgraded the software on its 3G network, putting an end to a fault that saw data transfers stop completely for some customers.
The upgrade was to be completed by Wednesday of last week and, according to a customer who tried out the service afterwards, “it runs like greased lightning now”.
A side-effect of the upgrade is that the high “dormancy” or time it takes to wake up the 3G modem from inactivity on Vodafone’s network has largely gone.
In the past, it could take three or four seconds before the modem woke up, leading to time-outs for DNS look-ups and web browsing.