Comparing 3G network speeds: Vodafone vs Telecom XT

Here is how it went down at my house. I'm in the Beach Haven North area of what will soon be the North Shore area of a united Auckland. I have NO IDEA where the nearest cell tower is for these two carriers. They are anonymously strewn up and down the nearby streets.

I used the "Xtremelabs Speedtest" app three times in succession, with a two minute break between each test. I did not restart the app or the phone. The battery had plenty of power. The phone is an HTC Magic running the "as-sold" version of Android. I sat in the same place and held the phone the same way for all tests.

The sample is small and proves nothing about either network, except perhaps 3G speeds are pretty good, though variable. Telecom does seem to be consistently "half-speed" on the upward leg. I saw the same thing last night when I was doing speed tests. That may be a function of distance to the nearest tower. I'm assuming it's easier for the phone to "hear" the tower than it is for the tower to "hear" the phone.

The Vodafone tests were done between 20:11 and 20:18 and the Vodafone results were as follows:

1. Max down: 1229.0Kbps / Avg down: 1152.1Kbps
   Max up: 273.8Kbps / Avg up: 273.6Kbps
   
   
2. Max down: 806.1Kbps / Avg down: 795.4Kbps
   Max up: 294.8Kbps / Avg up: 255.6Kbps
   
   
3. Max down: 885.7Kbps / Avg down: 804.9Kbps
   Max up: 310.3Kbps / Avg up: 309.2Kbps
   

Telecom XT network tests were between 20:26 and 20:32. Here are the Telecom XT results.

1. Max down: 1455.5Kbps / Avg down: 1447.2Kbps
   Max up: 139.2Kbps / Avg up: 156.6Kbps
   
   
2. Max down: 1360.1Kbps / Avg down: 1212.3Kbps
   Max up: 150.7Kbps / Avg up: 142.5Kbps
   
   
3. Max down: 885.4Kbps / Avg down: 580.4Kbps
   Max up: 154.9Kbps / Avg up: 113.6Kbps
   
   

Do your own tests....if nothing else, it's fun. :-)