ITPRO

Printed from www.itpro.co.uk

Register to receive our regular email newsletter at http://www.itpro.co.uk/reg/register.

The newsletter contains links to our latest IT news, product reviews, features and how-to guides, plus special offers and competitions.

Skip to navigation

    Mobile broadband speeds slower than expected

Broadband Expert finds that the average speed of UK mobile broadband is half as fast despite its initial findings

By Ash Dosanjh, 29 Apr 2008 at 16:38

The average speed of UK mobile broadband is far slower than initially thought, according to new research carried out by a broadband comparison site.

Broadband Expert found that the actual average speed stood at 1.46Mbs as opposed to the 2.95Mbs revealed by the same company in earlier surveys.

The survey, carried out between February and March this year, tested 1,213 mobile broadband connections with top download speeds ranging between 2.3Mbps for Vodaphone to 1.1Mbps for T-Mobile and 1Mbps for 3. Although Vodaphone was seen to have the fasted download speed, it has advertised speeds as fast as 7.2Mbps.

The average upload speed, which describes the speed that data can be transmitted back to the internet and is important for voice over IP (VolP) calls, was 0.38Mbps.

Download speed varied between areas, with greater speeds likely to be achieved in urban areas that have better coverage.

Technical director of Broadband Expert, William Harvey, said that mobile broadband providers should be weary of advertising speeds that are "largely unachievable".

"With mobile broadband, speed shouldn't necessarily be the main focus when choosing a product. The most important factors to consider are network coverage linked to reliable service provision," Harvey said.

"It is not surprising that mobile broadband is behind fixed line broadband as it's a comparatively new technology," he added. "But, mobile broadband providers must not follow the lead of home broadband services and advertise speeds that are largely unachievable."

Email to a friend

Print this page

Social Bookmark this article: What is this?

Be the first to comment on this article

You need to Login or Register to comment.

advertisement

    Latest Internet Reviews

Mozilla Firefox 3.5 review

Rating: 5

Firefox has had its status as the number one IE alternative under threat for a while. Can it reclaim its position with the latest update?

Read more

 
advertisement

    Latest News Videos in Internet

Video: How to set up a Smoothwall firewall

Play Video: How to set up a Smoothwall firewall   Play

We take you through how to setup your own low-cost firewall system using nothing more than a low spec PC and free software.

 

    Whitepapers

Want more background on today's hottest IT trends?

Visit IT PRO's whitepaper library for more on virtualisation, encryption and other topics.

    Register for IT PRO

You'll get exclusive member benefits including free whitepapers, downloads, Webinars and weekly newsletters full of the latest IT PRO news, reviews, insight and expertise.

Advertisement