Sprint → Re: Millenicom Rate Increase

I also need lower latency. Unfortunately Millenicom's EVDO Rev A latency is nearly twice that of HughesNet when something is downloading:

»EVDO Rev A latency higher than HughesNet during downloads

Unfortunately, my VPN falls apart due to latency whenever a download occurs over EVDO.

Have you EVER measured your ping times while simultaneously downloading something?

Reg

Perhaps I should mention this is in an EVDO Rev 0 coverage area.

Thanks for the tests, guys. I'll conclude that this issue only occurs when speed is limited by the link quality rather than the backhaul to the tower. Still, it is the constant case for me with Millenicom. I guess the bottom line is that I'm too far from the towers. I had been hoping that Sprint would upgrade the closest tower, but that has not happened in the four months I've had the service.

Thanks again,

Reg

I can't remember, but are you using any type of antenna / amp for your setup?

Figure I should add a ping view while I download as well, just to give a perspective on what I get.

Yes. Currently I'm using a magnetic dipole rooftop antenna with no ground plane and no amplifier placed in a particular position in a particular window to get -82 dBm at my modem.

I've tried my Wilson cellular Yagi antenna both with and without my Wilson cellular repeater. This improves my signal by about 10 dB, but I then pick up a particular rogue EVDO pilot that always knocks me straight down to 1xRTT where I stay forever. This pilot has been reported to Sprint level 4, but the technician that was supposed to follow up with me never did anything. I've discussed my tribulations extensively here:

»Millenicom Mobile Broadband NOT Replacing HughesNet

Before I cancel, I may try again with the Yagi to see if anything has been done to fix the rogue pilot. If so, I could be *much* happier with this service.

Thoughts?

Reg

I see that your pings increase, as well, but they still do not get to the level of HughesNet. This is interesting, since your signal level is 17 dB lower than mine (-99 dBm vs. -82 dBm). (In other words, I have an EVDO signal power level that is 50 *times* the power level of yours.)

Besides the rogue pilot problem, I also have access to about 6 different towers (and *many* different pilots). These are about 8 miles away and closely spaced to one another, so it's hard to isolate any of them. I could try a grid antenna with higher gain than my Yagi, but I don't think I'll spend any more money on equipment until we find out if unlimited will remain. (A 5 GB limit would render all of these discussions moot, since that would be a firm deal breaker for me.)

Thoughts?

Reg

I sometimes have an issue with tower switching myself, but I use a wilson omni at the moment. I'm looking into getting a panel antenna for my setup

»www.cellantenna.com/Ante ··· yagi.htm

The CAY1912 with about 40' LMR400. May look into getting an amp, but I think with the panel pointed at just the one pilot that I get the best Rev.A from (there's a tower out here that apparently has more than 1 T1 going to it because I've done some more tests and have been close to 2000 kb/s a few times) I should be good to go, with hopefully a little better dBm and DRC.

As you said though, I'm gonna wait a month or two to see how things pan out with the Sprint 5GB cap and Millenicom. Really hope things stay the way they are at the moment.

Starting about June 27, I now have -76 dBm using the same modem in the same location. Speeds have gone from about 500 kbps to over 1 Mbps and pings are now around 190 msec idle and 350 msec during a download.

I'm thinking Sprint must have finally upgraded the local tower to EVDO Rev. A! I'll have to drive there when I have a chance to find out...

All of a sudden, the $10.00 increase is not sounding quite so bad. I'll certainly hold on to the service through July (and probably August) to see if this newly-improved service persists.

Reg