I just did a speed test on improved signal strength, and I got just over 100 Mbps down, the upload was impressive as well. The test was done in Williamsfield.
I just did a speed test on improved signal strength, and I got just over 100 Mbps down, the upload was impressive as well. The test was done in Williamsfield.
FLOW now has LTE on Mandela Highway as well... just got a test off of it. 3 out 4 bars filled. Unfortunately I can’t get the RSSI values because Apple’s disables that in iOS 11. I’m amazed at the work they’ve done with ONLY LTE Band 4
So, to confirm... I saw LTE right through Kingston right onto North South Highway Caymanas Terminus... Thereafter, coverage continued up until Mt. Rosser. LTE coverage was also spotted in Ocho Rios & its environs. Runaway Bay, St. Ann's Bay... practically all of the North Coast Highway is covered and will BE covered. These sites are under testing though... they're limited to the 40/10 we're used to. The limit was not observed at sites near the Airport or the Hotel Strip. Honestly, great job on their part... LTE is a huge undertaking for them and they've really leapfrogged the competiton.
I agree, I am getting over 100mbps down and 47mbps up on Spanish Town Road Kingston 11. Who would have thought that LTE with these speeds would have landed here. Flow really outdid themselves, and the Network was really worth the wait. I suspect we will see more improvements to the Network in 2018. I really hope they can out do themselves in the data department for prepaid subscribers.
FLOW put up a coverage map on their website for easy reference to where LTE is available. See here
Taking notes of the network in MoBay, they made some recent changes it seems. It'll take some time before they iron out all the kinks... their LTE network there is very much in its infancy (despite the fact that it still makes for a FAR better experience than 3G ever could). I'm thinking Huawei & FLOW have a great deal of network tuning to do before the network experience is as seamless as in Kingston. This is important as FLOW as of recently, has earned itself a new reputation for being the choice network for data. As they undergo the tough task of centralizing everything to their EPC in Kingston, phasing in the numerous upgraded sites AND turning them up to the maximum detent (i.e. our lovely gorgeous 100 Mbit/s speeds), I expect deployments thereafter to be much smoother. Of course, this will also avail the company to offer IMS functionality (like Digicel) such as HD Voice over 3G and perhaps VoLTE too and realise far less network maintenance costs.
I was having a look at the Speedtest Global Index and happened to see where Jamaica moved up 12 places (to number 80 Worldwide) in the month (December) in Mobile data speed rankings. We now rank in the same level as quite few countries such as Brazil, Morocco, Malaysia to name a few. What is even more curious is the fact that we outrank every other Caribbean nation (except for Belize & the Dominican Republic)... to include places like Puerto Rico!
What I find curious however is the graph.
This uptick in speed is in tandem with FLOW's lifting of speed restrictions over LTE for Prepaid customers. I highly doubt it had anything to do with Digicel LTE as the effects from the launch already enhanced speeds (moving from menial HSPA+ averages to solid 10 Mbit/s downlink speeds on average). But honestly, to think that from August to December we moved from sub 10 Mbit/s to over 15 Mbit/s... a literal 150% improvement over the last quarter... I really do think this is as a result of FLOW's LTE network. Heck, even the upload speeds got a boost too but I think the upload speeds are also pretty indicative of FLOW's LTE network too. All the timelines point to FLOW imo. In addition, given the rates, we could possibly rank even higher as the months roll by and Digicel LTE comes on stream in more places (like Montego Bay, Ocho Rios, Mandeville and Portmore/Spanish Town) to compete with FLOW's LTE offerings there too.
Also... Just to note, we rank 75th worldwide for Broadband with speeds of 19.01 Mbit/s down and 9.96 Mbit/s up. Barbados is 28th fastest worldwide in Broadband with an average of 48.67 Mbit/s down and 23.30 Mbit/s up.
What do you guys think though about all this?
Last edited by Brandysull; Jan 10, 2018 at 10:26 PM.