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EBSA View Drop Down
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Joined: 22/October/2016
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Points: 12 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: phone operators
    Posted: 23/October/2016 at 18:25
whats the best mobile operators in regards coverage and plans for prepay customers? iv looked on their sites but dont really understand the lingo
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stuart123 View Drop Down
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Points: 195 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23/October/2016 at 20:47
MEO or Vodafone appear to have the most coverage and best details across the algarve region.
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cubsur View Drop Down
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Points: 26924 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24/October/2016 at 10:58
If you go to the Worten mobile shop at one of the big shopping centres (eg Continente Modelo in Albufeira or Algarve Shopping near Guia) they sell all three networks so you can esaily compare prices.

I have an Optimus mobile which works ok almost everywhere down here. Ther are some black spots as you go up into the hills. 3G data service can be slow during schoolday afternoons here in town when the little brats are hogging the airwaves.

MEO and Vodafone are the other two operators.
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Points: 514 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 24/October/2016 at 22:10
I've had meo and optimus and never had any issues with both always a good coverage .... if I need wifi I've gone into one of my locals to save data , tbf I try to keep my use age to a minimum ,in my down time 😊
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cubsur View Drop Down
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Points: 26924 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30/October/2016 at 11:37
Over the past few days i have run Speedtest on my Optimus phone at various locations around Albufeira and elsewhere. Unscientific but the results show how widely service varies even between places that are scarcely a few hundred yards apart. The best speed I had was inside Continente supermarket in the town, at the back by the fish counter! The slowest, effectively no service at at all, was at Silves railway station. Make of this what you will. If you want to do the same, go to speedtest.net

Latency is the time it takes for the distant end to respond. HSPAP is High Speed Packet Access an enhanced 3G service. UMTS is the more common or garden variety.  Edge is between 2G and 3G, no good for most internet.

if you want to know what all those little network symbols next to the bars on your phone mean, here's a guide


Date and time

ConnType

Download

Upload

Latency

ServerName

My physical



Mbps

Mbps


where tested to

location






not local transmitter









2016-10-29 17:31

Hspap

3.53

0.72

64

Lisbon

On a bus near Bullring Albufeira

2016-10-29 14:35

Hspap

6.15

1.71

55

Lisbon

Quarteira Stadium

2016-10-29 13:45

Hspap

6.04

1.64

59

Evora

Outside Alfagar 2 near Balaia








2016-10-28 12:55

Hspap

1.81

1.54

58

Lisbon

Albufeira Bus Station

2016-10-28 12:47

Hspap

0.2

0.06

59

Lisbon

On a bus at Brejos

2016-10-28 12:07

Umts

7.16

1.5

58

Lisbon

Inside Continente

2016-10-28 11:55

Umts

2.49

0.8

59

Lisbon

Outside Continente Modelo

2016-10-28 11:41

Hspap

3.74

1.49

69

Lisbon

Avenida Liberdade top end

2016-10-28 11:40

Hspap

3.08

3

55

Palmela

Avenida Liberdade top end

2016-10-27 16:07

Umts

0.49

0.43

48

Palmela

Páteo

2016-10-27 15:41

Umts

0.53

0.43

66

Palmela

Albufeira Health Centre

2016-10-27 15:33

Umts

0.52

0.4

44

Palmela

Ferreiras on a bus

2016-10-27 15:29

Hspap

0.52

0.43

43

Palmela

Albufeira railway station

2016-10-27 15:29

Hspap

0.48

0.4

49

Palmela

Albufeira railway station

2016-10-27 14:38

Hspap

0.22

0.31

49

Lisbon

Silves railway station

2016-10-27 14:38

Edge

0.07

0.28

121

Lisbon

Silves railway station

2016-10-27 13:43

Hspap

6.64

1.02

48

Evora

Silves town centre

2016-10-27 11:58

Hspa

3.25

0.74

64

Lisbon

Vale Paraiso near Albufeira

2016-10-21 13:26

Hspap

5.18

2.5

39

Lisbon

Balaia Golf Club























Effectively no connection at all. This is 1.8km from the previous reading



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peteknopp View Drop Down
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Points: 3432 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30/October/2016 at 14:52
Those speeds are pants. either your phone is coal fired or Optimus are very slow. With an iphone on Meo I rarely see less than 20mbps (lowest probably 10-12) download all along from Albufeira to Vilamoura.
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Points: 180 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30/October/2016 at 17:43
You've changed your tune cubsur,as when I posted up on another thread saying how i got consistant good speed results at different locations,one of which was 74mb download and upload of 39mb you said speed isn't everything,now your posting up speed test results yourself,what's that about ?

As according to your previous post a speed test result could be good one minute and rubbish the next,so posting up what they are in different locations is a waste of time as one minute they could be good and the next it could be nothing at all
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stuart123 View Drop Down
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Points: 195 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30/October/2016 at 22:20
Those speed tests do appear to be very low - the NOS 4G card I'm using varies between 10 and 20mbit up & download speeds.

Although around town there are some dead spots.
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cubsur View Drop Down
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Points: 26924 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 31/October/2016 at 10:02
Forum locked me out!

My NOS phone is a cheapo one with a 3G SIM. I have been using it more and more recently while out and about for other than just being a phone. My portable hot spot, which I often take with me,  was loaned out. I have become more and more aware of dead spots, slow speeds and general connectivity issues. I don't stream video or play games. I have used Skype for video calls without problems.

You will see that I did two tests within a minute at exactly the same place the top end of Avenida da Liberdade. Much better speed the second time, even though both results were pretty poor.

The distance between the two tests at Continente was about 100 metres.

The one that surprised me the most was at Silves station. It's only a about mile (1.7km) from town and for those who don't know it is quite high up. For the 30 minutes or so I was waiting there I had, in effect, no data service at all. 

I will complain a little about my home broadband, which although I get HDTV without a problem currently delivers only around 8Mbps download, 2Mbps upload. I shouldn't complain too much perhaps as I am paying only €9.98 per month plus VAT.

My phone has just tested indoors here in Páteo at 7.66 download, 2.65 upload. My MEO hotspot was 7.47 and 1.65. The NOS website says I will receive 'up to' 21.6 in this area, nowhere near that of course!

The coverage maps on commercial websites are rather unreliable as they rely on data submited by users, which seems to consists mainly of people in cars. According to several of the maps there is no mobile coverage in most of Albufeira old town!

I will do some more later this week. Other users results from specific locations would be of interest.

A glance at some maps showing transmitter locations does seem to indicate that Vodafone has the most around this area. That would help them maintain decent speeds among the users.
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cubsur View Drop Down
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Points: 26924 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02/November/2016 at 11:37
SOME MORE 3G SPEED TESTS

All on the afternoon of Monday afternoon 31st October at the times and places listed.
I am beginning to wonder how accurate these tests may be! They may show how wide the variations can be even when sitting for 15 minutes in exactly the same place.

Two very poor areas are around the Câmara and the top end of the strip.

Location
Time
Download
Upload
Ping (msecs)
These first ones I was inside a bus
Boavista hotel Rua Samora Barros
14.42
3.07
1.30
54
Outside Old Cemetery
14.43
1.81
1.41
45
St Vicente statue
14.46
4.46
1.38
52
Avenida Liberade bus stops
14.48
3.21
1.59
55
Health Centre
14.50
4.41
1.90
55
Opposite bus station
14.53
3.25
1.30
68
Fire Station
14.56
1.74
1.36
53
Câmara
14.57
1.14
1.35
54
Modelo bus stop
15.00
2.12
1.23
65
Now off the bus




Jinky's Bar at strip
15.05
1.85
1.59
61
Opposite Senhor Frogs
15.21
2.37
2.18
64
The little park near Hotel Montechoro
15.28
1.16
1.64
73
ditto
15.29
2.17
0.98
72
ditto
15.30
0.61
0.49
81
Outside Ancora Bar, strip
15.37
3.86
1.45
61
Strip, opposite the Cottage
15.41
1.79
1.38
57
Sitting at the bus stop by Wild & Co
15.48
2.45
1.06
55
ditto
15.51
7.26
2.16
45
ditto
15.53
8.69
1.96
44
ditto
15.56
10.13
1.22
58
ditto
15.59
9.82
3.00
51
ditto
16.02
9.43
1.62
43
Back on a bus




Tres Palmeiras
16.17
2.37
0.66
59
Inatel
16.21
0.24
0.556
58
Inatel while some stupid woman...
16.22
2.53
2.38
45
Pau da Bandeira escalators top
16.25
3.83
1.37
59
Câmara bus stop
16.27
1.42
1.07
55
Rua Alves Coorreia old town
16.27
4.07
1.27
54
Cerro Mar
16.32
3.66
1.39
76
Secondary School
16.34
1.43
1.26
82
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tonisdad View Drop Down
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Points: 1060 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02/November/2016 at 15:34
I don`t really understand this upload download malarky either my computer works OK or it doesn`t.
I used to have vodafone dongle/hotspot that was OK 99% of the time .We now have MEO fixed line and most of the time it is crap just tested and got this:
Ping 14ms download speed 7.03mbps upload speed 0.90 mbps
second test:
13ms 7.02mbps 0.88mbps
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Points: 3381 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02/November/2016 at 16:12
This is the most reliable and accurate speed test
http://speedtest.btwholesale.com/
The fact that it's BT doesn't matter it works for any ISP in any Country

I use it without jumping through all the hoops listed but if you need a really accurate reading then you relly need to comply with them.
I hate how peopleï compare Frank Zappa to God. I mean, he's cool and great and nice and everything, but he's no Zappa.
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Points: 1060 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 02/November/2016 at 16:21
Originally posted by DICEYUK DICEYUK wrote:

This is the most reliable and accurate speed test
http://speedtest.btwholesale.com/
The fact that it's BT doesn't matter it works for any ISP in any Country

I use it without jumping through all the hoops listed but if you need a really accurate reading then you relly need to comply with them.

Dicey just doing a quick test without hoop jumping..I will need to find ethernet cable for that I get:
Download 7.02   upload  0.80     ping latency 99.25
As I say it doesn`t mean a lot to me!!
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cubsur View Drop Down
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Points: 26924 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03/November/2016 at 16:53
The higher the latency number the longer it takes for stuff to arrive. Speed isn't everything.

99.25 is very poor but does depend on where and what you are pinging to.


The analogy between a data flow and water flowing through a pipe is a good one. If you cannot watch TV properly, block the kids devices and keep the bandwidth for yourself.

Jitter is also a factor but not easy to measure in short term. Especially for video and also for voice eg Skype, a constant rate of 'flow' is important, even if it is quite slow. If the speed goes up and down you can get stops and starts, always when someone's about to score!

I have just re-tested my MEO fixed line broadband which is currently connected to a UK proxy
Download : 8.82Mbps Upload a rather sad 0.75, ping 54ms

The BT site mentioned above tested on the same connection gave me 6.05 download, 0.71 upload ping 46ms

I was getting 12 - 15 download a few months ago so work needed out there. I have seen fibre optic cable being laid in town, so there is hope yet.
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