UK gets 24% of advertised mobile broadband speeds
June 12, 2009
Research by Epitiro, the broadband communications authority, reveals that speeds delivered to UK mobile broadband users are significantly less than those advertised. The research covered popular broadband activities such as web surfing, downloading music and movies, VoIP telephone calling, Internet gaming and watching streaming video. Leading mobile broadband operators 3, O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Virgin Media and Vodafone were measured and Epitiro's analysis revealed the following;
– UK mobile broadband users receive on average 24% of advertised download speeds
– The average download speed achieved with mobile broadband is just under 1 Mbps
– The average mobile broadband ping time (150 msec) exceeds the recommended ceiling (100 msec) for acceptable web-based game playing. Ping times are 3 times slower than equivalent fixed line broadband services which are less than 50 msec, on average.
– Web browsing is 34 per cent slower than speeds achieved on equivalent ADSL broadband services
– Trends in mobile broadband indicate TCP download speeds improving at a rate of 11 per cent over the test period
– Average mobile broadband speeds double to 1.8 Mbps at 3am on weekdays indicating that contention at the cell may be a limiting factor
– From the 750,000 TCP download speeds recorded throughout the 5 month period, several tests managed to exceed 3 Mbps indicating that higher speeds are possible