A new report published by Ofcom on 26 May 2011 reveals the average download speeds of all the UK's mobile broadband providers. O2 are the fastest; Orange the slowest.
The report was compiled from over 4 million tests carried out across the UK between September and December 2010, with the help of monitoring specialists Epitiro. It shows that location is the most significant factor, with rural areas faring significantly worse than urban ones, but with substantial variability and no guarantee of fast speeds even in city centres. One of Ofcom's key recommendations is that users check coverage of mobile broadband in the areas where they expect to use it before selecting a network provider.
The average download speed across all locations and networks was 1.5 Mbps, compared with 6.2 Mbps for fixed broadband lines. Ofcom also found that speeds vary throughout the day, being slowest between 8pm and 10pm, when usage is heaviest. On average, basic web pages took 8.5 seconds to load. Using fixed broadband lines, web pages load in 2.2 seconds on average.
In first place was O2, followed closely by Vodafone and 3. T-Mobile and Orange were significantly slower than the others, with Orange in last place. O2 also achieved the lowest latency values as well as the fastest average speeds. Latency is a measure of the responsiveness of a connection and is the main reason why mobile broadband is slower than fixed. High latency makes connections less suitable for certain applications such as online gaming and voice-over-IP (e.g. Skype.)
The tests covered mobile broadband access using USB dongles and data cards only, not smartphones. Ofcom plan to run similar tests using smartphone in the future.
Mobile broadband has grown rapidly in the past few years, with 17% of homes now making use of it. In fact, 7% use it as their only way of gaining internet access. This probably reflects the aggressive pricing of the mobile broadband providers and the increased investment in the capacity of their networks.
The most popular networks are probably 3 Mobile and T-Mobile. Customer feedback on mobile broadband services generally is highly critical. Issues that concern users most seem to be the high variability in download speeds and the quality of customer support. This variability was noted by Ofcom and seems intrinsic to any mobile service. It's fair to say that none of the providers receive much praise from consumer reviews, but T-mobile are usually singled out as the worst.
The speed of the mobile networks is likely to increase significantly when 4G (fourth generation) services are introduced. Everything Everywhere (the Orange/T-Mobile joint venture) is expected to begin trials of its 4G service during 2011, with the service being introduced commercially in 2013.
You can read user reviews of the UK's mobile broadband providers at Recommended Buys UK. Find out more about O2 mobile broadband at Mobile Phones UK.
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