UK mobile broadband speed averages 1.46Mbps, but ads claim more
Sounding rather like the saga surrounding home broadband speeds, a recent survey suggests that mobile broadband users aren't always getting the maximum speeds advertised.
Broadband Expert's research, based on testing around 1,200 connections, found the average speed of UK mobile broadband is 1.46Mbps. This is around half the speed of the average home broadband speed of 2.95Mbps.
Vodafone's offering fared the best with a top recorded speed of 2.3Mbps, although they have advertised speeds of up to 7.2Mbps -- about the fastest speed HSDPA currently operates at. To be fair, though, some of those surveyed were on lower speed contracts.
T-Mobile fared less well, with a top speed of just 1.1Mbps, while 3 came in at 1Mbps. As O2 has only just launched its mobile broadband offering, no data was available on the service.
The average speed of upload (data going from phone to network) was 0.38Mbps. It's an important figure to measure if the user wants to use VoIP services, or is planning to upload multimedia data to a blog or other online service from their mobile.
It's not all bad news, though. Broadband Expert Technical Director William Harvey explained, "With mobile broadband, speed shouldn't necessarily be the main focus when choosing a product. Mobile broadband use tends to be business focused with email and web browsing the key activities. Speeds of 1-2Mbps are generally adequate for this type of activity."
He warned against mobile operators falling into the same trap as companies offering home broadband, advertising maximum connection speeds that can rarely if ever be achieved.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment