Intermittent slow connection problem when using cellphone as modem

Ash Small, Fri Jul 08 2011, 11:21AM

I usually use a pay per bandwidth mobile dongle to connect to the internet, however, as I get 500megabytes free download on my cellphone each month I also use my cellphone as a modem in order to use up the allocated bandwidth.

The cellphone usually downloads at around 56 kilobytes a second (max 115,200, it is a 2G phone) but sometimes goes really slow or even stops completely. This is not a signal strength problem.

If I 'force' the connection by making a phone call (phone calls disconnect the internet connection for the duration of the call) the download speed immediately goes back up to around 56 kbps, but then slows down again. However, if, for example, Norton does an update, the speed goes back to 56 kbps for the duration of the download.

Can anyone tell me why Norton downloads at 56 kbps while Internet Explorer only downloads at a few, if any, kbps, yet I can 'force' the connection by making a call? (This is an intermittent problem, sometimes it works fine. Would a different browser make any difference?)

(I'll have to make another call now in order to upload this question, however calls are free to Vodafone )