Speed Tests
Sunday, September 30th, 2007Fed up with the speed of StarHub as of late, I decided to do a quick test to compare the performance of StarHub and the only other competitor I have access to: M1 3G SunSurf Mobile.
The following table shows a quick comparison of the advertised features between the two:
| Feature | StarHub | M1 |
|---|---|---|
| Plan | MaxOnline Premium | SunSurf 22 |
| Download Speed | Up to 12 Mbps | Standard 3G? |
| Upload Speed | Up to 384 kbps | Standard 3G? |
| Bandwidth Limit | Unlimited | 1 GB |
| Coverage | Home | Islandwide |
| Subscription Fee | $81.32/month | $23.54/month |
| Excess Usage Charge | None | $10.70/GB up to a maximum of 10GB |
So do they live up to their expectations? Check out some test results from Speedtest.net, at four locations worldwide: Singapore, San Francisco, London, and Melbourne. The tests were done at about 12 pm local time, on Sunday, 30 September 2007.
Singapore:
San Francisco:
London:
Melbourne:
A download test of a 1.06 GB file from Download.com also showed that StarHub only managed to get speeds up to 15 KB/s, while on M1 I managed to get speeds up to 22 KB/s, which is ironic because a wired connection is supposed to be faster than that of mobile.
Note that this test result is not perfect. The upload speed, in particular, may not be a fair test as all upload tests with M1 invariably break at the 40-50% mark, but the website inexplicably remarked that the tests had been completed. In addition, I only tested the connection speed to 4 different servers. A real, fair test should also include other locations worldwide.
Nevertheless, the results have tempted me to switch to M1 Broadband, which is supposed to be faster than M1 3G. At $22.42/month, it bundles 5GB free data with download speeds of up to 512 kbps. Extra usage charge is at $4.28/GB up to a maximum of 10GB, putting the maximum charge at $65.22, cheaper than StarHub’s offering. Not only that, the islandwide coverage is also tempting, in case I need to do my work at a place where there’s no free wireless connection.
The connection to StarHub was done through a router and a cable modem. The connection to M1 3G was done through my Sony Ericsson K618i, connected to the PC via a USB cable.
