Slow 4G with Optus SIM Plan

teeshiu on 02/08/2018 - 11:49

So my phone plan was due with Virgin mobile and I've decided to switch to Optus Sim plan hoping the speed will be faster since they use Optus network.

It ended up to be slower than when I was with Virgin. (video buffers while loading, which didn't happen much before)

I did a speed test and only get around 10mbps, so I went onto Optus support chat.

After chatting with them for a while, I tested the speed again while connecting with their staff, the speed test came back with 50mbps. So I was happy with it since it seems to be a lot faster than what it used to be.

As soon as I ended the chat and did another test, the speed drops back to below 10mbps.

I signed up with the 25% discount bonus, so I'm wondering if they are doing the speed cap to SIM plan customers only, other Optus customers as well or is it just me.

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Comments

  • blonky on 02/08/2018 - 12:08
    +1

    Pretty sure Virgin is on the Optus network…

    • teeshiu on 02/08/2018 - 12:39

      What I meant was, since I was already using Optus network I thought it will be faster if I switch to Optus. (one of my friend who is a Optus employee told me that they prioritise Optus customers first.

      • Strahany on 03/08/2018 - 15:41

        It's one thing for Optus reps to lie to customers, but another thing altogether to lie to their friends; I'm assuming they processed the sale for you?

        Virgin uses the entirety of the Optus network. All Virgin customers are no different to Optus Personal customers, with only Business accounts ever given preferential treatment (e.g if there is a major outage, the business accounts get put back online first). Having said that, even this minimal difference may not exist today.

  • blonky on 02/08/2018 - 12:25

    Sorry that comment probably didn't help; first are you sure you're using the same server for each speedtest? Speeds can vary greatly depending on which server you connect to and can be random, so manually select the same server on the speedtest app/site

    Unless you're on one of the new 'unlimited' plans which actually throttles you to 1.5Mbps, I'm not aware of any speed caps.

    What you could've done before signing to Optus is grab a couple of cheap prepay sims for each carrier (doesn't have to be Vodafone/Optus, could be one of their resellers such as Kogan, Lebara, Aldi for example) and see which network gives you the best speeds in your area.

    I found Optus has a blackspot in my area and the Telstra and Vodafone speeds were pretty close, so went for the ozbargain Lebara 16GB plan for $16.67/pm

    • teeshiu on 02/08/2018 - 12:42

      I use the ookla speedtest on mobile.

      I'm not sure but there is only one option for Optus Sydney server which is what it auto connects to every single time.

      I guess that's a good way to test it out. Cheers

      • blonky on 02/08/2018 - 14:15

        Could it also be related to time of day congestion or location?

  • poohduck on 02/08/2018 - 17:58

    Mobile data is dependent on the nearest tower and how much traffic that tower gets. If there are 100 people connected to it then the load is shared between those 100 people. adsl or nbn is different in that cable can handle much greater data load.

  • aboutconfig on 14/10/2018 - 19:01

    Optus mobile network is the most heavelily oversold one, slow like hell during peak hours and holidays

  • aboutconfig on 14/10/2018 - 19:02

    can't even open a webpage, google internet speed test page would not complete due to it is too slow!!

  • dmb0312 on 14/10/2018 - 21:47

    I have this exact issue but with kogan/Vodafone network is western sydney. Struggling to get speeds above 10mb/s around most of sydney

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