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Speedtest and Traceroute comparing HSPA vs Wimax (M1
Broadband vs Qmax)
Introduction
We tested this on 28 Dec 2008 at 11pm using Speedtest.net. Both devices are
connected direct via USB (M1 Broadband) and Ethernet (Qmax wimax).
First, we take a look at speed test to the Singapore server. Both give a rather
high ping time of 100+ ms. In fact, if we do a ping on an afternoon to
www.singnet.com.sg, Qmax will average
99ms while M1 broadband around 59ms.
As for plans are 2mbps, we see that the M1 Broadband is closest to the acclaimed
speed. As for the Qmax, it is able to attain 1.8mbps on a normal afternoon and
M1 is able to reach 2mbps.
As for the New York server, M1 still gets almost double the bandwidth and scores
a slightly lower ping time of 385ms. As for London, it scored 1.035mbps while
the Qmax is only 674kbps. Again for Yokohama, the speedtest result is better at
1869kbps vs 1319kbps on Qmax.
We noticed that all the ping time on Qmax seems to be a bit higher than that on
the HSPA network. Secondly, the uplink speed seems to do better but it is not up
to the acclaimed 1mbps even for a local server (score = 595kbps). Now let's take a look at the traceroute results of both devices. Using the
traditional tracert command, we do a tracert to singnet.com.sg Here are our findings. For M1 Broadband, it took 9 hops to reach the
destination, 2 more hops than the QMax. The ping time also fluctuates between
59ms to 359ms depending on the hop. 7 hops was required by Qmax to reach the
server and it averages between 69ms to 549ms C:\Users\admin>tracert
www.singnet.com.sg C:\Users\admin>tracert
www.singnet.com.sg Next we take a look at a tracert to youtube which is in the USA. On M1
broadband, the tracert isn't able to get every hop listed but shows a request
time out. Only on the 18 hop, we see a ping time of 251ms. The last hop listed a
ping of 949ms which is rather high. As for the Qmax, all the routes except for the last few can be seen clearly.
The average ping time ranges from 79ms to 516ms. The last hop registers 269ms. C:\Users\admin>tracert
www.youtube.com C:\Users\admin>tracert
www.youtube.com
Although we get pretty good results from our JE, forums have been flooded with
complains about HSPA networks and minimum issues with Wimax. No matter what, we
can see that both wireless internet speed is subjected to a lot of factors like
location, weather and the amount of users it can support.
In terms of pricing, the current M1 BB 2mbps is priced at SGD38 per month while
the Qmax 2mbps plan is at SGD34.90. M1 BB or any HSPA allows you to be mobile
and you can surf the net with your portable netbook in any part of the country.
As for Qmax, it is still usnig the Ripwave modem which is buggy and needs an
external power supply.
I would recommend the M1 BB over Qmax at this moment until Qmax migrates to
802.16e and comes out with portable USB connectors. From what we gathered, it
should be as early as Q2 of 2009.
So which wireless network will you subscribe to? If you have HSPA or Wimax
service in your country, do tell us how you feel about the performance. Discuss
it in the networking forum at
http://my.ocworkbench.com/bbs
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