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Review : HSDPA speed test on T-Mobile UK cellular network with T-Mobile MDA Vario II Pocket PC phone August 31, 2006 [Pocket PC phone] | By Edward J. R. HSDPA? Symbian powered phones cannot do it. Conclusion: buy Windows Mobile phones! T-Mobile MDA Vario II is a HTC Hermes Pocket PC phone branded by T-Mobile Europe and we present hereby a test of HSDPA (a fast version of UMTS), that we carried out today with use of this phone on the 3G network of T-Mobile in UK! Firstly, we checked whether proper bands have been selected (as you can see all European and American bands - both 2G and 3G - are supported in this great phone): 
Then we checked Internet settings: 
... but since we purchased our T-Mobile MDA Vario II directly at T-Mobile, all the settings were in place. Then we started testing but speeds were in range of 300-400 kbps so certainly not HSDPA-like! After calling customer support of T-Mobile we learned that actually HSDPA must be activated for our SIM card. Clearly not all people at customer support of T-Mobile UK are informed about the situation with HSDPA! At first we were told that we need to pay extra and go onto the web n walk pro (i.e. we would have to upgrade our web n walk to get HSDPA). Then customer support of T-Mobile phoned back and said they didn't realise we were on a T-Mobile MDA Vario II, so they would activate it for us after all! Clearly many people at T-Mobile are a bit confused yet and obviously if you have a data card you need pro for the faster speeds - to get HSDPA. The same if you want to use your phone as a modem - pro version of the web n walk tariff is needed. Anyway after some time we received SMS with activation of HSDPA and we were ready to test it... but clearly it was not working yet because we still had 300-400 kpbs. Then we downloaded Hermes Tweaker - a free program - and with help of this program we activated HSDPA. Now tests were working and significantly bigger speeds were measurable... We achieved in some tests 1042 kbit/second: 
... and in some other tests 1.1 megabits/second: 
We concluded that speeds of about 1 megabit per second are realistic with T-Mobile MDA Vario II on T-Mobile cellular network in UK! Theoretically the hardware of the phone allows speeds up to 1.8 megabit/second, but clearly this theoretical maximum speed is not achieved. For comparison's sake, for example Dell's notebooks with built-in UMTS/HSDPA card are able to achieve 1.6 megabit per second out of 1.8 megabit per second that is maximum! Clearly web n walk tariff of T-Mobile UK is not wholly unlimited, but it is (!) flat rate, meaning that you don't pay more if you exceed the 2GB, but you may be disconnected or throttled down. Anyway only people who purchased T-Mobile MDA Vario II can get HSDPA activated on their non-pro version of this tariff. Conclusion: HSDPA is not just one of those upcoming new technologies, but it is available - right now - at least in Europe (in USA: coming to Cingular and T-Mobile USA by the end of this year), where T-Mobile and Vodafone offer it already. Clearly if you want to get smart phone (or PDA phone) and you would like to take advantage of HSDPA, you have no choice now: you have to buy Windows Mobile!  Post your comment (free registration is required to post, but if you register you can edit your posts later) [ 15 Comments ]
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