How many minutes to prepare the device? It's been like that for over 30 minutes and no indication that map is even being downloaded

The size of the map file is substantial and if you have a slow internet connection it can take several hours. I have fairly fast internet and the process takes about 40 minutes.

Using Garmin Express, it tells me that the map update will take 3 hours and I have a very fast fibre optic broadband.

I think the last map update was the same.

The estimated are much longer that what seen it take to complete.

Last time I measured, it was like 30-45 minutes. 

I took the plunge today as I had the morning free.

It took 3hrs 46 mins to do the map update, pathetic, Garmin Express predicted 3 hours as well.

Tonight when I got time, in comparison I was able to download a 4GB file in 18mins 38 seconds onto my PC and this is on a fast fibre optic broadband.

"The estimated are much longer that what seen it take to complete." So that statement is absolute garbage but that comes from a person who over many years likes to defend Garmin products as not being useless.. Perhaps if people stopped defending how flawed Garmin products are, Garmin might be more inclined to sort the issues out.

Yesterday, I update two Garmins 1030 in less than 4 hours...

I would not say it's a fast update but, by experience, map updates are always a "go watch a baseball game" thing during the process...

On a 1030+. The 1030 shouldn’t be too different. 

The initial estimate was 5+ hours but settled down quickly to about 40 minutes. There wasn’t any real delay in Express starting to show a moving progress bar.

Garmin express shows 2 rates during the transfer. These stabilized fairly quickly at the following (after starting lower).

Download rate: 36 MB/s (this is the rate to your computer)
Transfer Rate: 13 MB/s (this is the rate from your computer to the device)

Clearly, the download ends before the transfer ends (but it’s doing both at the same time).

It took 36 minutes to complete.

13 files with a total of 23.2 GB were updated.

This was for the NA and Europe map. (The 1030 is generally only going to be updating one map unless you have a card and paid for additional maps.)

Maximum USB 2.0 transfer rate is 60 MB/s (480 Mbps).

The network speed was about 250 Mb/sec. 

I don't consider your download speed fast.

Whose download?

You replied to leginswal who complained that a 3:40h download was slow and called me a liar.

My download took 36 minute for a 1030+ but for much more data. That might not be “fast” but it is much faster than 3:40 hours.

Clearly, it can take a long time for some people but it’s also not always slow.

It’s mostly a non-issue anyway since it’s rare, not urgent, and you can do it when you can wait.