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By Nicole Kobie

Posted on 26 May 2011 at 08:47

O2 is the fastest network for mobile broadband, according to a new study undertaken by Ofcom.

The telecoms regulator released its first study into mobile broadband, conducting 4.2 million network tests - but only for dongles and datacards, not smartphones. Ofcom said it would test smartphones in future research.

According to tests by measurement firm Epitiro, O2 was the fastest broadband provider, with an average speed between 2.5Mbits/sec and 3Mbits/sec, followed by Vodafone, Three and T-Mobile. Orange was the slowest, averaging below 1.5Mbits/sec.

The data only counted connections that were 3G or HSPA, ignoring 2G connections. The tests used "static probes", which were left at 97 locations across the UK and took measurements hourly.

Ofcom said O2 also had the lowest average latency, while Orange had the slowest upload speeds, with its four rivals nearly tied. However, 85% of recorded upload speeds were less than 1Mbit/sec.

Consumer reality

Those recorded speeds are likely to be considerably faster than average consumer experience, however. Ofcom also ran tests with 1,000 consumers to see what speeds they were actually getting.

Those tests found the average mobile download speed was only 1.5Mbits/sec, with basic webpages taking 8.5 seconds to load. However, areas with good 3G coverage averaged 2.1Mbit/s during the day and pages took 2.2 seconds to load.

However, the tests only downloaded text and HTML - not images - in order to avoid addressing the use of image compression, Ofcom said.

Unsurprisingly, Ofcom also found urban areas had better mobile broadband than rural areas thanks to better 3G coverage. "However, performance was highly variable across urban areas, with no guarantee of good performance offered in a city-centre location," Ofcom noted.

The report also found that 17% of UK households use mobile broadband, with 7% using it as their sole way of getting online.

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User comments

Really?

This is *completely* at odds with the emails I get from readers of the Mobile & Wireless column. I get consistent complaints from O2, praising the network's customer service, but slating their data network performance.

By PaulOckenden on 26 May 2011

Sorry - typo

I get consistent complaints from O2 *users*, obviously.

I'd love to receive emails from O2 themself - unfortunately they tend to ignore the UK's most read smartphone column. Wonder why?

By PaulOckenden on 26 May 2011

In my experience, Orange 3G is available in many more places than O2 3G, so that is more useful to me than a faster service not accessible. Here in Kendal for example, O2 are the only network without 3G, and they have no plans for it either.

Maybe Orange are slower because more people use it?

By MJ2010 on 26 May 2011

In my personal experience, I think I would agree with this.

I used to be on O2 and never really had problems with 3G.

I'm now on Orange / Tmobile.
When connected to the Orange network, I rarely get a 3G signal, and even if I do, it seems slow.
When connected to Tmobile, it is noticeably better.

This is the case at both home and work, which are about 100 miles apart.

My wife is on a Vodafone based variant, and her signal strength and performance is always better than mine on Orange/Tmobile.

By SteveSmith on 26 May 2011

Standout points

I've read the report, a number of issues stand out but I'll pick 2.

1. The average download speed experienced by the consumer panel based on all
connections was 1.5Mbit/s. Seven percent of consumers received average
speeds of less than 0.5Mbit/s and 6% received average speeds of more than
3Mbit/s.

2. Average latency was 192 milliseconds and around a third of tests delivered
latency of higher than 200 milliseconds, making the connection not suitable for
internet services which require a high degree of responsiveness, such as online
gaming or VoIP telephony.

All of the providers tested advertise their Mobile Broadband services as "up to 7.2 Mbps".

Is ofcom (or the ASA for that matter) now going to *do something* about these outrageous lies?

By rozman on 26 May 2011

On a

I recently went back to the UK for a short trip and was amazed at how slow the mobile internet there is.

Living in UAE i find may things here backward but I have fibre to my home and mobile broadband which is excellent. I can stream youtube videos instantly on my phone and often travel around using mobile broadband on my laptop with near instant response to page requests and fast loading times. I also get pretty much full 3G coverage as a minimum and HSPA+ in most places. and that includes being in the depth of the desert surrounded by sand dunes.

Id gotten so use to the speeds being the UK truly shocked me and it seems the early sell off of the 3G licenses really hurt in the long term. And yet again Ofcom are about to make the same mistake.

T

By smokinscots on 26 May 2011

Re: On a

Bugger, subject got cut off. Apologies.

By smokinscots on 26 May 2011

O2 are fast here

I have compared Three speeds with O2 at my home and found the throughout on O2 to be much faster (I was surprised too!).

The trouble is these tests vary so much depending on the mast, time of day etc that it is hard to make meaningful comparisons.

By fiendishlyclever on 26 May 2011

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