I have a vario II already which while the handset is capable of HSDPA doesn't have it as I would have had to get the WnW Pro offering at the time (though I know some people managed to get it anyway).

Now when I go to buy a Diamond the girl in the t-mobile shop says I will get HSDPA speeds automatically as long as the phone is capable of it

The one I played with in the store had HSDPA on but I don't want to buy one and find it runs at the same speed as mine.

Can someone who has got one clarify?

She is wrong (the gurl in the shop). If you don't currently have HSDPA enabled on your account, you won't if you run a diamond on the same account. (at least I don't). You would have to wangle an upgrade to WnW plus, or stump up the £5 a month and add it to your account (DIY on the web now )

Thanks, I thought so. Actually £5 isnt that bad so I guess it will work out ok.

I'm not sure I entirely agree! I have the basic w'n'w package and seem to be getting the big 'H' on my diamond, (both connected and not). My understanding of the 'plus' element was to do with your fair usage limit and whether you could use it as a data modem for your laptop etc.

As far as I know HSDPA is more to do with the reception in your area (which thankfully seems pretty good in Newcastle...unless your under a bridge or in a wood etc)

Not sure I agree now either, T-Mobiles site is very secretive in telling you what you have.

I know for sure I have the "H" symbol, that indicates the HSDPA, but my download speeds are nowhere near those I would expect for full speed HSDPA (i get about 195kbit/s). I also know that WnW+ is not ticked on by billing options in MyTMobile. It will cost me £5 to tick the box and see if there is any real differences where I live...

I'll post when mine arrives and let you know what it seems to have. The t-mobile people don't seem very sure themselves whenever you speak to them about it.

HSDPA is the software in the phone that enables you to connect to the T-Mobile or other networks at the faster speed, it's sometimes referred to as 3.5G as its the next evolution of the 3G technology.

The phone will always connect at the fastest speed it can find so if your in a area that has a good HSDPA service your get the fastest, which can be up to 7.2mps inside the M25, if it cant get good HSDPA it will go 3G (upto 3.2mps), and poorest GPRS (Dial Up speed).

The basic Web'n'Walk package £7.50 has a 1 Gig fair use.
The Web,n,Walk Plus package is £12.50 has a 3 Gig fair use but allows you to use the unit as a modem when connected to a laptop or PC

Hope this helps

W'n'W Std does NOT have HSDPA enabled if you got it since 17/10/07 - some people who got it before then might have it enabled.
The H means HSDPA is available but if it is not on your plan you will only connect at 3G speeds.

The basic Web'n'Walk package £7.50 has a 1 Gig fair use.No HSDPA/HSUPA
The Web,n,Walk Plus package is £12.50 has a 3 Gig fair use but allows you to use the unit as a modem when connected to a laptop or PC. with HSDPA/HSUPA

Hope this clarifies it a bit....

nearly....

Is the conection symbol (H 3G or G) truly indicative of the connection attained? I get a H (most of the time) but the download sppeds are much below what I would expect...

Do i need to travel around the country to find out what i'm really getting

What the hell is… HSDPA?

Published by Stuart Dredge It’s another darn mobile acronym, that’s what it is. But it’s actually quite exciting if you’re into mobile content. To take the basics first, HSDPA stands for High-Speed Downlink Packet Access, although it’s probably easier to think of it as ‘mobile broadband’ or ‘3.5G’.

In short, it’s an upgrade to the operators’ 3G networks that gives you more bandwidth, making it faster to get content – whether that’s streaming video and music, or downloading games, video or music.

As a rough guide to what it means in the real world, while 3G currently gives you around 384 kilobits per second, HSDPA will allow 1.8 megabits per second for most of the handsets that the operators will launch later this year, although this will go higher in the future.

All the operators are upgrading their 3G networks to HSDPA, with 3 announcing last week that the first handsets would go on sale before Christmas. So what does it mean for mobile content? Well, for music, it means the operators will be able to start selling you full albums rather than individual songs.

Meanwhile, for video, it will improve the quality of streaming video, while making video downloads much faster. It’ll either be quicker to get content, or the operators will be able to up the quality, and get rid of some of that unattractive pixelisation that you see even on a 3G connection.

It doesn't matter if you have Web'n'Walk, Web'n'Walk plus, or Web'n'Walk Max attached to your tariff you will always connect at the fastest available speed that is available in your location. That means that because the Diamond/Compact IV have HSDPA ability where possible it will connect using the fastest connection it can

That, I'm afraid, is quite simply not true. The network has to en able HSDPA on your account.

That is not true either - you seem to have the same ver much incorrect view as the dimwit in my local vodafone shop,

There are numerous levels of HSDPA connectivity - 1.8, 3.6, 7.2, or 14.4MB/s - ALL of these speeds are HSDPA (O2 run 1.8, 3 run 3.6, everyone else runs 7.2 so far)

3G runs at a max of 384KB/s - roughly 6x that of GPRS, which has a max of 64KB/s

In addition to this, all of these quoted speeds are theoretical maximums. The chances of you being able to attain the maximum speed are extremely remote, and depend on how many users are connected to the same transmitter as you and your distance from it. On an excellent day, I would expect to not get better than 2/3 the quoted speed.

Plus, as confucious said, W'n'W standard does not now include HSDPA, unless you were an existing customer and had it activated before 17/10/07. However, some people seem to have slipped through the net on this (me included), so its a rather patchy implementation of the rule. (as a pointer, my w'n'w appears on my contract as "web 'n' walk handset option", as opposed to "web 'n' walk standard")

And again like confucious says, the network can restrict any user to any speed they like whenever they like - in other words, whether your phone reckons theres a HSDPA network doesn't necessarily mean that there is actually a HSDPA connection available to you at that time. The only way to see if you have HSDPA is to do a speed check on the connection - if you get more than 384KB/s, be happy. If not, then contact your network (unless you're on w'n'w standard, in which case dont bother and either put up with it or upgrade)

What are people using to reliably measure download speeds?

dsl reports
940kbs on my Athena using a Three SIM
1355kbs on my E90 using a T-Mob SIM

Have spoken to T-Mo and I DO appear to be one of the lucky ones and yet dslreports shows a rather poor 192kbs. Perhaps HSDPA in Newcastle isn't that good after all.

I'm in 'that London' soon, so i'll try again inside the M25!

192 is exactly half of normal 3G
Are you on W'n'W std? It will be interesting to see what you gey in London but I wouldn't necessarily assume that T-Mob actually know that there is more than one place on there system that it needs to show as being enabled for it to actually work....

The guy I spoke to did seem to dig around fairly deeply and started spouting some mumbo jumbo terms about masts that I didn't understand (and I consider myself pretty technically literate).

As you say, it'll be interesting to see how this changes

...and yes I am on std!

I take it by this, you mean that you are supposed to have full access to HSDPA speeds.. What does your account show on MyTMobile, do you have the WnW+ activated? or are you supposed to get the speeds on a WnW standard access?

..
edit,

Nevemind you answered that about 2 posts later

Just tried with some of the larger files on dslreports and got some interesting results (I was also hanging out of my window trying to improve reception). Using the 1 Mb download file I managed to get 335 kbs...presumably normal 3G speed?

3G has a max of 384 kbs so that's about right. If you get more than 384 you are definatly on HSDPA.
Just got a colleague to try his O2 and it varied between 220 - 560kbs
My speeds vary but T is consistantly higher than 3 (700-1350 as oposed to 500-900 approx.).