Time for MNOs to come clean with mobile broadband speeds.
The difference between the data rate which a broadband provider promises and that which a customer experiences has been a cause for complaint from the latter since DSL took over from dial-up services. The same is as true now for mobile broadband providers as it has ever been for fixed-line operators.
In the UK, a key characteristic of the fixed-line broadband market since 2005 has been the increasing take-up of higher speeds without increasing prices. Yet in determining speeds is often as futile as ploughing the sea. Conflicting data is regularly banded about: according to the regulator, blended headline speeds rose from 3.6Mb/s at the end of 2006 to 5.4Mb/s in 2007 and 7.2Mb/s by the end of 2008. Other surveys have suggested substantially lower average speeds. Speeds also differ widely between areas of the country (London average speeds are twice those of Northern Ireland), as also between urban and rural areas, partly because many rural areas lack access to cable, and DSL-dependent households are often further from exchanges.
Up to 80% of broadband subscribers do not get the access speeds they are paying for. This in turn has affected the take-up of broadband TV and other high-bandwidth applications. Although 16% of Sky subscribers are on the 16Mb/s service, only 6% of them can receive that speed. About 78% of these subscribers receive less than 8Mb/s. Fewer than half of the subscribers to the 8Mb/s services of the major ISPs, including BT, can get that speed.
In January 2009 Ofcom pushed for ISPs to adopt a voluntary code of conduct to provide consumers with an accurate estimate of the maximum speed they can expect when signing up to a service rather than the advertised headline speeds.
The same is now needed for mobile broadband offers. A recent survey by Epitro on 1.4 million speed tests found that only 24% of mobile broadband subscribers can get the advertised headline speed. The average download speed achieved with mobile broadband was 900kb/s – significantly below the already derisory minimum broadband speed sought by the government (2Mb/s) by 2010. By contrast, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone claim a theoretical top speed of 7.2Mb/s. Vodafone has also trialed HSPA+ technology which can potentially deliver downlink speeds of up to 28.8Mb/s. HSPA+ is expected to be commercially available later in 2009; Vodafone has already completed trials of HSPA+ in Spain and Portugal. Similarly, Orange’s target by the end of the year is to provide 7.2Mb/s in the 30 largest cities and 2Mb/s to 80% of the population, in addition to launching a 14.4Mb/s service.
Yet for the majority of the operators’ customers, who cannot receive these speeds, this technological wizardry is no comfort. While there may be no solution (too many variables are at play), operators could at least come clean about what customers can expect to receive from their mobile plans. As is often the case, a lesson could be learned from Sweden. There, most customers similarly do not receive mobile data at the advertised speeds, yet the MNOs have agreed to market speeds more honestly from September 2009, using common guidelines which enable customers to see the practical maximum speed achieved instead of the theoretical maximum speed. The agreed practical maximum speeds are: 3G at 300Kb/s (theoretical maximum being 384Kb/s); HSDPA at 3Mb/s (theoretical maximum being 3.6Mb/s), 6Mb/s (7.2Mb/s), and 10Mb/s (14.4Mb/s) depending on the MNO; HSPA+ at 16Mbs (theoretical maximum being 21Mb/s).
Such a solution, adapted for national markets, will at least help to make consumers less jaded about what they pay for.
Henry Lancaster
Senior Analyst, Europe
BuddeComm
For more information, see separate reports:
United Kingdom – Mobile Market – 3G & Mobile Data;
United Kingdom – Mobile Market – Overview & Statistics;
Europe – Mobile Market – Mobile Data;
Europe – Mobile Market – Overview & Statistics;
Europe – Mobile Market – 3G.
