Vodafone isn’t set to come out with a 4G service until mid- to late-2013, but the telco has already started testing its new, hot network in the Sydney CBD. So how fast is it?
The tests are being conducted in Sydney’s densely populated Eastern Suburbs, with teams being sent out to make sure handover from tower to tower is working correctly along with other tests.
A tower in Alexandria was used for the initial network speed testing, and the team managed to pull around 67Mbps down and 25Mbps up using the Speedtest.net app.
Vodafone has thrown all the usual disclaimers on those numbers, saying that congestion, device used and distance from the tower will impact speed, but it’s promising customers using Category 3 devices like a Nokia Lumia 820 or an iPhone 5 speeds of around 2Mbps-40Mbps down.
The great news here is that Vodafone has 20MHz worth of spectrum in the 1800MHz band, which is more than both Optus and Telstra have to offer. More bandwidth means less congestion, which might be redundant given the fact that everyone has already left Vodafone anyway.
Vodafone will be testing its 4G network across the country in the coming months. [Vodafone]