USB Gladiators: PTCL EVO and Wordcall EV-DO go to war

Khooni Muqabla

A few months ago I wrote a review about PTCL’s then brand-spanking-new EV-DO service. And if memory serves, I was pretty high on it. Since then, I’ve been travelling internationally much of the time and haven’t had an opportunity to use it much or to followup on the numerous comments and alternate perspectives that were presented in  the original review’s discussion section. A lot of folks felt that it wasn’t working as well and many opined that Wordcall might be the better option.
So with the spirit of sacrifice firmly entrenched in my heart, I ventured out to perform yet another noble public service that TechLahore has become world renowned for… I purchased a Worldcall EV-DO USB device. Now I could put the two competing dongles in a glass jar, seal said jar with an impregnable carboard-and-rubberband lid and watch as both dongles played out their enmity by beating each other black and blue. Hehehe. Which dongle would survive?
I was incredibly disappointed when – even after my best efforts and much verbal prodding – both dongles just lay lifeless in the glass jar. A kid whose candy had been snatched from him, was I. The smile that anticipation of impending violence had put on my face was wiped clean in moments. It was quite clear. These damn dongles had no fight in them at all… pathetic little sissy boys. Thus, I was forced to take alternate measures.
 Alternate measures, of course, were the handy Speedtest.net service, something I’ve used in the past to measure PTCL EV-DO performance. With both dongles now out of the glass jar, I was well positioned to test the sworn enemies side by side and finally form an informed opinion about which provides better service. First to enter the ring was new contender and wannabe pretty boy, Worldcall… weighing in at just over a 1Mbps download.

Worldcall EVDO performance, measured between Lahore and NYC on Speedtest

And now, weighing in at 1.54 Mbps, the reigning champion, the mean machine… PTCL EV-DO!

Stand up... for the champion!

So there you have it folks, PTCL bloodied Worldcall’s nose, twisted its arm and only got jabbed unconvincingly in response. A one sided affair if I ever saw one. EVO comes in at 1.52Mbps vs. 1.1Mbps for Wordcall; PTCL is 38% faster on the downlink. PTCL is able to upload at .47Mbps while Wordcall maxes out at 0.34Mbps, here again PTCL is 38% faster. Only in the latency dept. does Worldcall show slightly better performance, at 308ms vs. 345ms for PTCL.
The point to note here is that this is the best I’ve seen Wordcall perform so far. I did these tests in the am when probably not too many people use it. Generally, through the day, Wordcall suffers a 50% performance degradation and seldom goes beyond .45Mbps for downloads. PTCL stays above 1Mbps in all cases I’ve measured so far.
As I concluded my tests the Wordcall dongle which had now turned black and blue, but was thus-far lying in the typicaly unassuming fashion that USB dongles lie, suddenly shook, vibrated, did a little jig and winced… I could hear it saying, “The battle may be over, but the war is far from won… muahaha..*cough*..hahahah!”
We’ll just have to see about that, Wordcall, we’ll just have to see about that.