[NJBlackBerry]

You do know that Bluetooth, relatively speaking, is a very slow protocol???

Off topic - I have a new HP Mini 5101, which came with a very spacious (and fast) 160GB HDD....

[HaTaX]

I had the same exact issue when I started playing with tethering on my 9700 with Windows 7 over bluetooth. What I had to do was go into the modem's port settings and dial down the FIFO buffer or turn it off completely.

I know that sounds far fetched and like it shouldn't affect it, when I turned off the FIFO buffers it went right past the registering your computer on the network and hooked up just fine. After that I was able to turn the buffers back on, but I set them at like 8 & 10 instead of 14 & 14 (Tx & Rx buffers respectively)

Also of note, benchmarking or testing tethering over bluetooth is not a good way to test max speed, you should use a USB cable to see where it maxes out. Bluetooth is not known for being the most speedy standard out there, and I'd expect a full speed 3G connection at 3.6MB/s (Max the 9700's hardware is capable of) would completely saturate a bluetooth tethered connection.

I'll be trying out the USB cable with desktop manager just to see where I come out and I'll post the results after I've completed that.

Otherwise as NJBlackBerry said, it's best to revise your testing strategies and try different methods to make sure that there aren't other influences affecting your results. (IE, 3G testing in a poor coverage area)

[trax95008]

Originally Posted by NJBlackBerry

You do know that Bluetooth, relatively speaking, is a very slow protocol???

Off topic - I have a new HP Mini 5101, which came with a very spacious (and fast) 160GB HDD....

i got mine with a solid state hd. only 16gig. i had to edit the xml file to get the ip modem to show up in DM. will att know im tethering and possibly charge me for it? with the other method, they must not have had a clue because i never got charged extra.

[anawrahta]

Count me in the camp of 3G being faster than WiFi... I'm getting around 1.5Mb/s down with wifi and 2.3Mb/s down with 3G. Coming from a non-3G BB, I'm pretty impressed and I think the browser is perfectly usable against what I was using.

[HaTaX]

As far as the browser goes, I've been using Opera Mini 5 and it also seems to be able to integrate into the email app. When you open a link in an email, there is an option up at the top to "Open in Opera Mini".

Opera mini is much better then the built in browser IMHO and I use it most of the time for web browsing.

[BallHawk3]

hmm just ran a speed test on 3G on my 9700. I got 111kb.

Thats about what I get on average on EDGE.

[aburt]

Originally Posted by BallHawk3

hmm just ran a speed test on 3G on my 9700. I got 111kb.

Thats about what I get on average on EDGE.

Try a bunch of tests. I've found my speed can vary from 90kbps to 1900kbps within a few minutes. (T-mobile 3G)

[torberry]

On Rogers 3G ain't no big thang fellas....

Data/voice is a tiny benefit. I could easily live without it.

[pvdilf40]

Originally Posted by trax95008

it is possible that its not a gprs connection. i have already said that im not 100% sure. what i DO know, is that from my experience, a tethered connection had the same speed result using a 3G device or non 3G device

Your experince is isn't that vast then. Here's the tethered speed that I got with the 9700 on TMO 3G.



I'm pretty sure that gprs is not that fast.

[jaz0305]

tmobile 3g just sucks, my wife's BB9700 flies on at&t while my BB9700 on tmobile is super slow, may be slower than edge sometimes.

[snowmangoh]

Originally Posted by jaz0305

tmobile 3g just sucks, my wife's BB9700 flies on at&t while my BB9700 on tmobile is super slow, may be slower than edge sometimes.

That's funny, cause TMO just upgraded thier ENTIRE 3g network to 7.2Mb/s... Have you checked her speed in the last week? AT&T is only at 7.2 in some areas... the rest is still 3.1.

[Stevestrike]

Are there any reliable speed test for the BB browser?

Tethered, I'm not seeing much more than 100 here in Houston, TX on my 3G 9700.

[tom0100]

Are you using a Tmobile 9700? If you use an unlocked 9700 or use an unlocked AT&T 9700; it will not have the 3G bands for T-mobile. AT&T and T-mobile use different 3G bands but the same Edge bands. Thus a device can always dump down to Edge speeds if it's unlocked.

Originally Posted by jaz0305

tmobile 3g just sucks, my wife's BB9700 flies on at&t while my BB9700 on tmobile is super slow, may be slower than edge sometimes.

[bigdaadio]

Originally Posted by HaTaX

While 3G hasn't been as fast as I expected and seems to be very "bursty" with it's speed overall, I could hold a phone call over a bluetooth headset and remain tethered to my laptop via bluetooth on the 3G network with no problems. That was pretty sweet to see it all work bug free! (Used it for a 2 hour remote support session last week, no drops with acceptable performance)

Your profile says you are on T-MO, did I miss the fact or do they NOW have a 3G blackberry?

[ifonline]

Yep. The BlackBerry Bold 9700.

[KeNNethX]

I have a 9700 with TMO and in my area 3G for TMO is either unstable and/or slow OR It's the 9700 itself. (note: I am on my 2nd unit as the first one had issues and after troubleshooting they thought it was the device...NOT). When on 3G it doesn't seem any faster than when I set the device manually to 2G/EDGE. I ran speed tests from the browser (at toast dot net). And on EDGE I am getting download speeds of around 630kb...on 3G I get around 690kb. Only slightly better. I have tried several test from several cell locations with similar results. The only reason I don't stay on 3G is because the speed degrades over time and gets slower and s l o w e r...until the device stops delivering data for 10-20 minutes and then starts again (or I can switch to 2G only and back to 3G and I am fine again). I had this problem on both devices...they tried a new SIM card...I have wiped with JL_Cmder and reloaded the OS all to no avail. I haven't tried loading .423 yet....would this help? I am guessing not. I think the 3G in this area either stinks or needs tweaking. Any ideas?!?

[KeNNethX]

Originally Posted by snowmangoh

That's funny, cause TMO just upgraded thier ENTIRE 3g network to 7.2Mb/s... Have you checked her speed in the last week? AT&T is only at 7.2 in some areas... the rest is still 3.1.

A moot point...the 9700 can only handle 3.1. In fact the only BlackBerry that can handle 7.2 is GSM version of the Storm (not in the States). There was an article about it recently over at CIO dot com.

[kissberry]

3G speed is faster than EDGE

[sean76]

seriously, the last 2 weeks with 3G on the Blackberry 9700 have been painfull. BBM has been terrible as well! the End is near for me and at&t

[iamnad]

Originally Posted by KeNNethX

I have a 9700 with TMO and in my area 3G for TMO is either unstable and/or slow OR It's the 9700 itself. (note: I am on my 2nd unit as the first one had issues and after troubleshooting they thought it was the device...NOT). When on 3G it doesn't seem any faster than when I set the device manually to 2G/EDGE. I ran speed tests from the browser (at toast dot net). And on EDGE I am getting download speeds of around 630kb...on 3G I get around 690kb. Only slightly better. I have tried several test from several cell locations with similar results. The only reason I don't stay on 3G is because the speed degrades over time and gets slower and s l o w e r...until the device stops delivering data for 10-20 minutes and then starts again (or I can switch to 2G only and back to 3G and I am fine again). I had this problem on both devices...they tried a new SIM card...I have wiped with JL_Cmder and reloaded the OS all to no avail. I haven't tried loading .423 yet....would this help? I am guessing not. I think the 3G in this area either stinks or needs tweaking. Any ideas?!?

I have the exact same problem. Please post if you find a solution.

Thanks.