Are you paying for mobile broadband speeds that you are not getting?

Recent research has suggested that the many consumers in the UK that are rapidly joining the mobile broadband revolution may actually be paying for speeds that they are simply not achieving, with many getting only a fraction of the mobile broadband speeds that are being advertised by the mobile broadband providers.

As part of an ongoing project looking into the experiences of customers using mobile broadband nationwide research was carried out by Epitiro, a research company, to look at the performance of mobile broadband providers and it was found that the speeds most mobile broadband users received is significantly less that the advertised speeds.

As part of the analysis carried out by Epitiro the research looked at the popular online activities like video and music downloading, web surfing, watching streaming video, VoIP calling and internet gaming.

Epitiro looked at the UK’s main mobile service O2, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Orange, 3 and Virgin Media and found that there were several areas where mobile broadband fell down.

The report found that most mobile broadband users only received 24 percent of the download speeds advertised by mobile broadband providers with 1Mbps being the average speed users received when downloading. For users looking to play games online the ping speeds where 150ms on average, which was 3 times slower that the average speed of an equivalent fixed broadband line.

Compared to a normal ADSL the speed of web browsing was 34 percent slower for mobile broadband users. It was also found that at certain times of the day the speeds doubled meaning that a limiting factor at other times may be to do with contention at cell sites.

The CEO of Epitiro Gavin Johns 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.”

He continued saying “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. Epitiro will continue to monitor mobile broadband performance and track service levels during this exciting period of development.”

At present those wanting to be part of the mobile broadband revolution face the problem of not really knowing what sorts of speeds they will achieve compared the speeds that the mobile broadband providers are advertising, and this could make a big difference when it comes to the suitability of the mobile broadband package to the needs of the user.

However, some industry officials have suggested that one way to try and get around this is to look at mobile broadband reviews, which are available online. These reviews are available from users that have already tried and tested the service, and will enable potential users to see whether the speeds are up to or close to the ones advertised.

Tags: web browsing, broadband, broadband speeds, mobile broadband speeds, higher speeds