Here is what I’ve found so far. Remember, this entire discussion is ONLY about when there are no major restrictions (high traffic, signal interference, etc) on the basic cell phone signal
At best, my phone tests above 60Mbps, at worse, less than 1Mbps. I learned very early not to bother with video downloads unless the tests recorded above the 5Mbps that the carrier contract allows for mobil hotspot. Usually this is 20 to 50Mbps on the phone. When the phone tests high, the computer, with Firefox, using the mobil hotspot, tests above 5Mbps, almost always at 5.7Mbps. The carrier’s contract speed limit for mobil hotspot use is 5Mbps.
The Windows Task Manager is very useful for gaining insight to internet interaction on the computer. One view produces a graph of total download rate for the last 60 seconds, updated every second. The other view provides a numerical value of internet throughput for each application using the internet, also updated very frequently.
I recently found, never having tested this before, that while Amazon video downloads are running at a steady 2Mbps, I can simultaneously download files from other sources through my browser, Firefox, at almost 5Mbps, which is the carrier’s mobil hotspot speed limit. The Task Manager Performance tab show 6.5Mbps and the Process tab shows a division of 2Mbps to Amazon Prime and the rest to Firefox.
Is there any way to get moment to moment download rate information on an Android device? I would like to prepare a tablet in case I can manage to find some higher speed WiFi connection (not through my phone or its carrier) to run a test. If the Amazon Prime download rate is still 2Mbps, then Amazon must be responsible, giving me special treatment that is unlike other Amazon Prime users. If the rate is as high as the WiFi connection allows, my carrier must be the one restricting my Amazon Prime downloads to 2Mbps.
Until I switched to the new “improved” 4G/5G network and new 5G phone, under constant urging from the carrier, video downloads ran at 5Mbps according to Windows Task Manage. Now they are always at 2Mbps, with occasional variation up or down of 0.1 or 0.2 Mbps. Somebody, either the carrier or Amazon, is lying because they both tell me they aren’t responsible for the slow speed.
While my sample poll of other Amazon Prime users is small, and do not involve any mobil hotspot users, much higher Amazon Prime video download speeds were consistently reported ro me from each of them, up to 150Mbps. Thus my carrier is the 1st suspect since no other user has restrictions from Amazon, but I cannot separate the two on my computer because my computer’s only internet connection is the phone’s mobil hotspot.
