2degrees’ 4G Trial Update
2degrees Mobile recently launched commercially their 4G in locations around central Auckland, and I was lucky to be part of their 4G trial programme. Upon this trial I was also given a Nexus 5 device (which I absolutely love and you can read the review here) and around 20GB of complimentary data to use for the trial. You can hear my thoughts on 2degrees Mobile’s 4G after the break!
First of all, everyone should already know that 2degrees Mobile is one of the last providers to finally offer 4G in New Zealand, albeit 4G coverage is currently still limited to Auckland. A good thing about 2degree’s 4G is that you don’t have to pay an additional monthly fee to be able to use 4G; you can use your current data plan providing that you also have a compatible 4G/LTE device. I also think it is now the time for 2degree’s to up their mobile data offerings on some of their plans if not all, as 4G will definitely chew up customers’ mobile data very quickly. People have noticed this when doing speedtests on 4G, so just make sure you are comfortable with shaving around 200-300MB of data for a single speedtest, before you attempt one yourself!
Because I live in the West Auckland area, there is no 2degree’s 4G coverage around here meaning I had to head into Auckland City or nearby Auckland City for a few hours to test out the glorious speeds of 4G! Although, I did get the occasional ‘4G’ show up on my Nexus 5’s screen with one bar of signal in West Auckland.
The speed tests above was done near Western Springs, Auckland (the client location figures will also tell you that). The download speeds weren’t near the 100Mbps mark as you can see, and the upload speeds weren’t near the 50Mbps mark, probably because we weren’t in central Auckland at the time, which is where most of their 4G towers are currently. The 100/50 speeds were the approximate speeds of what I got for the Vodafone 4G speed tests done previously.
2degrees Mobile have said that their 4G should extend to Hamilton, Wellington and Christchurch by the end of the year. After then, will 4G be rolled out provincially across the country.
Here is a ‘3G VS 4G’ speed test by 2degrees should you want to compare the speeds:
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Albeit 2degrees have come to the 4G party a bit late, and their coverage is currently a bit slim, it is good to see that they have made some leeway into this specific market, and hopefully may even provide a more competitive offering than their counterparts!
