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Posted by: Illah

I read somewhere that the speed of the internet connection on a phone was dictated by the SIM card. I've been using the same old SIM for years now, so I imagine mine is pretty slow...if this is true (or is all mobile internet just super slow?). If it IS true, would there be any way to get a new, faster SIM from T-Mobile without disrupting my service? My current internet connection is VERY slow, even on text-only WAP sites.

Thanks,

--Illah

Posted by: GrYph0n

Your speeds should be right around dial up speeds, or just a bit slower.
On your phone, goto http://www.dslreports.com/mspeed, and run a speed test on your phone then let us know what you come up with.

Posted by: Illah

I averaged around 30kbps on that site. I heard the new SIM's are 64kbps up from the previous 32...a speed which I seemed to top out at. What kind of speed do you see?

Thanks,

--Illah

Posted by: smeg36

The advertised max of GPRS is around dialup speed. However I wouldn't expect to get close to that, that is just burst speeds. If you run the http://text.dslreports.com/mspeed test on your phone, then go to the compare results you can see what speeds others using T-Mobile achieve. They are all around the 30-40kbps range, so you are just about where your speeds should be. I usually get in the upper 30's.

Posted by: Illah

You know, I just tested a few more times and averaged more like 20 kbps, not 30. Then I checked the average field...T-Mobile averages 45 kbps with nearly 4500 samples. Funny how if there ARE 32K and 64K SIMs, 45K is nearly dead center...

EDIT: I just called T-Mobile and older cards are only capable of 32K while newer ones can do 64K! If anyone is like me and has had the same SIM for years it might be worth heading a T-Mobile store and getting a new SIM. Apparently this is only like $20.

--Illah

Posted by: muchomorek

The 64K Sim card has more contacts on the phonebook.
more memory it has nothing do with GPRS speed.

32K SIM allow manual network selection, current 64k cards do not. ...

Posted by: Illah

I specifically mentioned to the rep about 32K and 64K in regard to data transfer speeds, and made it clear I was talking about internet access speed, and he said that I was correct. So is he just an idiot?

--Illah

Posted by: smeg36

I would be interested to see your speeds if you do get a new SIM. Please post results!

Posted by: GrYph0n

No offense to any reps that are members here, but most of the unknowing reps are just that. They seem willing to tell you anything to assure that it isn't their fault and it is yours for using an unsupported phone, and to tell you anything to pay a little more into them. Most look at the customer as a basic user that prob wouldn't notice a difference anyway and would convince themselves that it is faster.

If you decide to get a 64k SIM I would love it if you would test your 32k before going to the store, then test the 64k in the same place with same signal strength. There is a pocket site that does this but I don't have the mobile url handy at the moment. Please post your results as I am not sure if the rep is right or not, I am just offering my ideas behind what most of them say...

Posted by: Illah

I was thinking the same thing Gryphon. So maybe a better solution would be to ask the internet community to test for me. I'd say it's safe to assume everyone who got T-Mobile within the last 6 months would have the 'latest' SIM. While the geographies and whatnot would change, at least it would give us some insight. Any new T-Mobile users out there that want to give it a shot?

Test your phone at this URL: http://www.dslreports.com/mspeed

--Illah

Posted by: smeg36

I got mine at the end of January. As I have said, I get in the upper 30's.

Posted by: muchomorek

check this out

http://www.mobile-speed.com/ its free

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