Mobile broadband rip-off: users get quarter of advertised speeds

Speeds delivered to UK mobile broadband users are vastly less than those advertised, according to a report from broadband benchmarking firm, Epitiro.

The report, ‘UK Mobile Broadband Performance Analysis – Initial Findings 2009, involved monitoring the connection speeds of 1,300 UK mobile broadband users, collecting over 1.4 million test results between December 2008 and May 2009. Leading mobile broadband operators 3, O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Virgin Media and Vodafone were included in the study.

The research looked at popular broadband activities such as web surfing, downloading music and movies, ‘voice over IP’ telephone calling, internet gaming and watching streaming video. It was found that UK mobile broadband users receive on average 24% of advertised download speeds at just under 1 Mbps. However, the report found that average mobile broadband speeds double to 1.8 Mbps at 3.a.m on weekdays indicating that contention at the cell may be a limiting factor

Gavin Johns, CEO, Epitiro said:

“This exhaustive study confirms the general consensus that mobile broadband services are functional and, while currently slower in practice than their fixed line competition, continually improving”

“That we recorded a few measurements at relatively higher speeds is confirmation that mobile broadband technology is capable of much more.”

“Given the growing interest in mobile broadband and its potential to address ‘not spots’ there will be increasing demand on operators to provide solutions that meet consumer expectations and further improve performance.” continued Johns. “Epitiro will continue to monitor mobile broadband performance and track service levels during this exciting period of development.”

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