Here’s how fast the Econet 4G LTE is #Speedtest

L.S.M Kabweza Avatar

Yesterday, we promised we would do everything to get a 4G dongle and test it so we get a feeling of just how fast this new technology implementation. The sad thing is we couldn’t buy our own dongle to play with. We couldn’t even get a rental one as for some reason none are available for the public at the Econet shop/stand at UNWTO. We’re told there are some technical challenges that their engineers where looking into. After all the launch hype this was of course a surprise.

Anyway, eventually we got an Econet staffer to help us do tests with his dongle. This was the result of a test from a device in Victoria Falls to Liquid Telecom server in Harare:

4g-lte-liquid

You can access the results on Speedtest.net here http://www.speedtest.net/my-result/2926829724.

It’s ironically exactly half the theoretical 65 Mbps speed Econet announced last week. This – 32.5 Mbps  down speed and 11.36 upload – is very very fast by any standard. Think downloading a 1 gigabyte movie in under a minute. Of-course this assumes that all connections in between and the server providing the data at the other end are all working at least as efficiently.

Also note that the test was to a server in Harare. We didn’t do to other cities around the world as these would be affected by other non-Econet factors in between and therefore distort the result. Also good to note that this is 32.5 Mbps of a virtually empty highway so it’s still in some ways a theoretical speed. The speed would definitely be much lower once Econet starts adding subscribers to the network.

In our conversation with the Econet guy that let us use his dongle, he told us they have been getting as much as 45 Mbps on some tests. We will still make all effort to get our own dongle and probably do a test in Harare as well.

17 comments

  1. Danny

    We cant really say on an empty highway because I guess so many users or econet staffers are using it already in Vic Falls from what I know! Another thing, testing an Econet server is really theoretical as you said, we still need a test to another practical non-econet server somewhere!

    1. ic0n1c

      so many users? surely they can’t be more than 2000 right now… Tests should be conducted in Harare so that we get full appreciation of the “real” speeds.

    2. Zim_Son™ the magn

      its an empty street coz the public is yet to be added into the LTE matrix hence the writer being correct in saying the highway is virtually empty. i believe once most subscibers are added, then we will see the true speeds being churned out by Econet. for now i cant say its fast

  2. Wellywaa

    Question. Did your Econet guy restrict you to testing the dongle on their network and with their servers only? If so, why? If not, what was the point of this test? I think people would be more concerned with international connection speeds, i.e. a real world usage scenario.

  3. allan

    guys, please run tests to an overseas server. running speed tests to a harare server will give local browsing speeds.

  4. Nasie Chikamba

    This is on Empty highway to a local server, why not test on international server?

    1. Tonde

      test with International Server

  5. Muti

    Why are you speed testing Local Servers?

  6. Five Rand

    These results are impressive but what will be the uptime for such speeds is the question. i have seen on a lucky day you can get impressive speedtest results which are never obeyed during the course of ones surfing online

  7. ic0n1c

    Wont know much with this speedtest untill you do another test using international servers…

  8. ICTCOMMENTATOR

    @ LSMK – Misleading to say that you can download a 1 gigabyte movie in under a minute on a 32 Mbps link. 32 Mbps (mega-BIT per second – b is always in smalls for bits) is actually 4 MBps (mega-BYTE per second i.e. 8 BITS make up 1 BYTE – B is always in caps for Bytes) meaning that the most volume you can download in 60 seconds is 240 MB (megabytes), so a 1 GB movie would download in over 4 minutes innit. Wont charge you for that. Question though, I understand that Econet is using the 1800 mhz band for LTE, specifically the FDD flavour of LTE, which is the most popular band and flavour worldwide for LTE deployment – how much spectrum (mhz) is Econet using at the 1800 mhz band to produce speeds of 32 mbps DL and 11 mbps UL???? Clues anyone???

    1. Mupari

      10MHz

      1. fourwallsinaroom

        please can you share the formula you used to calculate the spectrum

  9. arrrogant1

    Econets arrogant attitude contributed to their downfall in speed tests. hehehe

  10. Tech guru

    I think people need to understand the purpose of the test. It is to demonstrate the speed of LTE…which is an access technology. So obviously the best way to do that is to test to a local server so that you remove any other bottlenecks (if any) that may be there in the upstream. I have always had issues with people who think that speedtest to an international server gives them their ‘Internet’ speed…but this is not always the case..there a many factors that determine the speed one gets to a particular server at a particular time from a particular location.

  11. Farai

    Zvasiyaneyi nekuti ping 127.0.0.1

  12. Fast Speed Test Servers | top – topnetworks

    […] Here’s how fast the Econet 4G LTE is #Speedtest – Yesterday, we promised we would do everything to get a 4G dongle and test … server in Harare: It’s ironically exactly half the theoretical 65 Mbps speed Econet announced last week. This – 32.5 Mbps down speed and 11.36 upload – is very very fast … […]

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