Hi all,

Us good folk here at PCW/GGG just received a new wireless Broadband Internet card from 3 Mobile, to use while we're on the road at launches and events.

Using our Broadband speed test, here are our results in kbps (we ran the test three times):

1: 673 download, 340 upload 2: 639 download, 333 upload 3: 631 download, 338 upload

Advertised speeds on 3's site are up to 3.6Mbps download but typical speeds of between 600kbps and 1.5Mbps. Upload speeds are rated at up to 384kbps.

How does your broadband speed stack up to these results? Are you sick of advertised and "theoretical" speeds differing greatly to real life results? Does your broadband lag behind? Do you long for better broadband speeds?

Tell us what you think!

For basic web browsing and checking email, those mobile speeds are adequate. However, you would want a lot more if you were using some remote access software (gotomypc, logmein or even Lotus Notes web-based client!).

I haven't got a mobile card, but my iiNet ADSL2+ connection gets me 14632Kbps down and 710Kbps up. That's with a Linksys WAG160N ADSL2+ router.

My home ADSL2+ on Exetel gets me 15712kbps up and 812kbps down.

PCWorld Broadband Speeds

For comparison's sake, here are the speeds we get at PCWorld's offices:

Download: 847Kbps Upload: 756Kbps

This was done early in the morning so the network wasn't saturated. Faster speeds would always be nicer, but it gets us through :)

broadband speed test result

I am connected to Bigpond cable extreme. Ran the test three times using the Google Chrome browser and results are as follows (kbps) 1. 46649 / 1109 2. 62855 / 1028 3. 50597 / 1116

I would be very happy if these results are true!

Kbps vs kbps

Are you converting the bits (eight bits to the byte) to bytes and reporting this as kilo bytes?

No this is Kilobits (KBps is Kilobytes per second whereas Kbps is kilobits per second). Again, not the fastest speeds, but we get by.

Also it's possible that being in an office environment, speeds are regulated per user - you'd have to ask to find out though!

As a comparison point, my test on the same connection returns results of 960Kbps download and 1046Kbps upload.

Our auxiliary ADSL2+ workplace connection, though, gets speeds of 10928Kbps down and 814Kbps up.

I'd love to see if these results are replicated in different browsers. If you can stand the pain, give it a go in Internet Explorer and see if there's a big difference.

Broadband speed

Just tested my Bigpond Cable and received the following results:

1. 9421 114
2. 9383 122
3. 9537 113

There is a desktop and a laptop connected to the modem and the test was done on the desktop.

Bob Millman