The UK's 4G networks are beginning to deliver faster download speeds, but coverage across most of the country remains patchy, consumer group Which? has said based on new research.
EE is the big winner, and its LTE-Advanced network is said to be "really starting to rear its head." The Which? report says the BT-owned mobile operator has pulled ahead of its competitors when it comes to 4G, with an average download speed of 28Mbps.
The next fastest was Three, which was tied with EE in April, but which managed an average LTE speed this time around of 24.5Mbps. The average speeds measured for O2 and Vodafone, meanwhile, "both fell below the 20Mbps bar." According to the data, all four carriers have increased their 4G download speeds significantly over the last six months.
However, the research—conducted in partnership with OpenSignal, which surveyed 503,997,687 data points from a user base of 28,841 smartphones between June and August this year—found that "a 4G signal is still often difficult to come by" in many parts of Britain. Users, we're told, had access to EE LTE signal 64 percent of the time, O2 and Vodafone 60 percent of the time, and a Three signal in just 44 percent of cases.
And, while London had the best 4G coverage, it came last in terms of speed offered in a comparison of 12 UK regions.
4G mobile connections are fast in the UK but they're still hard to find. Over the summer we conducted 500 million measurements on the networks of Three, EE, O2, and Vodafone, and we parsed that data on both the national and regional level.
Our tests revealed that consumers are reaping benefits of fast 4G connections throughout the country, particularly as new technologies like LTE-Advanced take hold. Apart from London, however, our users had limited access to those fast speeds.
Three has the fastest 3G speed, according to the research, with average download speeds of 6.1Mbps on its HSPA (High Speed Packet Access) network. EE, however, apparently has the fastest overall speed, and over an aggregate of its 3G and 4G networks it has an average download of 18.6Mbps—nearly 6Mbps ahead of its nearest competitor.
EE had the best availability in seven of 12 UK regions, but faced competition in others. Three, however, wasn't even a contender on the regional level. The lowest-recorded LTE availability was with Three's network "in almost every single area," while in Wales "testers could only connect to Three's 4G network in one of every four attempts."
Internationally, the UK's 4G availability—a measurement of the proportion of time users have access to the network—scores were low in comparison to North America, Northern Europe, and East Asia.
London 4G speeds reflect "the downside of highly accessible networks," the research concluded. A typical LTE connection in the capital is around 18.8Mbps, but elsewhere in the UK the average is over 20 Mbps, with the fastest, at 23.3 Mbps, in Northern Ireland. The report said:
That may seem surprising given the enormous level of LTE investment operators have made in London, but what we're seeing is the downside of highly accessible networks.
The capital's huge population and big demand for mobile data combined with its high level of LTE availability mean more people are connecting to 4G there than anywhere else in the country. That in turn creates congestion on the network, dragging down speeds for everyone.
Read more about the UK's best and fastest mobile networks.
Listing image by gratisography.com
reader comments
16