telco_telco 26/11/2014 18:51 Page 1
fcom, the UK
communications
regulator, has
issued an interesting report
on the speeds available with 4G
services in the UK. By interesting, I
mean that the analysis shows that 4G
speeds - in the UK at least - are more
than twice as fast as 3G. Researchers
reported an average speed of
15.1Mbps (megabits per second) while
3G averaged 6.1 Mbps.
The report is noteworthy as it looked at
the speed and coverage
of mobile networks in
five major UK cities London, Birmingham,
Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh. As you
might expect, London had the fastest 4G
web browsing speeds, but - and this is
curious - the slowest 3G browsing speeds.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that the UK
cellcos are using elements of their 3G
spectrum for 4G purposes. You can’t blame
them either, as 4G is around six times more
spectrally efficient than 3G, so it makes
sense to refarm the spectrum more
effectively.
According to Ed Richards, Ofcom’s chief
executive, the performance of both 4G and
3G is complex and patchy around the UK,
but the report does make a good case for the
overall performance of 4G, showing that 4G
is providing a significantly enhanced mobile
broadband experience to customers, which
Ofcom expects to be available to 98% of the
UK population by 2017 at the latest.
Given the money that the UK’s cellcos are
‘throwing’ at 4G, you won’t be surprised to
hear that EE and Vodafone delivered the
fastest average 3G download speeds at 6.8
and 6.7 Mbps respectively, compared with
3G speeds of 5.6 Mbps for O2 and 5.2 Mbps
for Three. The 4G-speed winner was EE with
an average of 18.4 Mbps, followed by O2 at
15.6 Mbps. Vodafone’s average 4G speed was
14.3 Mbps and Three’s network came in last
at 10.7 Mbps.
O
immensely, depending on your location, the
type of kit being used and, of course,
whether you are a direct client of the MNO
or an indirect customer using an MVNO
(mobile virtual network operator), since
most و H