Huawei E587 claims speeds of up to 42Mbps

The Huawei E587 is an upgrade to the Huawei E586 supporting HSPA+ networks but this time, instead of the 21Mbps speeds of the latter, the E587 can now handle bandwidth speeds of up to 42Mbps. I believe this is also the same unit that is being using by Smart in their Rocket WiFi Plus plan.

I tried the Huawei E587 on a couple of carriers and found the speed tests very impressive except for the bandwidth caps indicated in the fine print.

Was able to get an O2 prepaid card in Cologne for only 5 euros. That includes a regular SIM (voice and SMS) and a data SIM with free 2 months unlimited internet worth 20 euros. I was impressed with the 2 months free mobile internet until I saw the fine print. It’s unlimited at 64Kbps but can go up to 7.2Mbps for the first 200MB.

Once you reach the 200MB data cap, your speed is reduced to dial-up speeds (64Kbps) but it remains free for the whole two months. If you want the 7.2Mbps back, you can get for an additional 15 euros per 1GB.

I have already used up the 200MB in the first day and been running on 64Kbps now on my phone doing simple stuff like Twitter, FourSquare and Facebook. Email and Instagram is a hit or miss.

I have since switched my primary line to T-Mobile with a SIM packet that costs 20 euros and has a pre-loaded value of 10 euros. I can get a 10-euro monthly rate with 300MB cap or pay 1 euro per day for a 200MB cap, all of which are deducted on my load automatically.

The speedtests are impressive and I constantly get above 8Mbps around the city of Hamburg. I am still on the look-out for a carrier that can maximize the speed of the Huawei E587.

You can read our full review of the Huawei E587 here.

P.S. I miss the Philippines. Our SIM cards are cheaper and our mobile internet has no cap (or have high volume caps).

Disclosure: The Huawei E587 was provided to us by HotGadgets. They sell it on Sulit for Ph8,500.