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British Mobile Broadband Found Wanting ... Survey Says
(22 Sep 2009, BWCS Staff)UK mobile broadband providers are delivering services with speeds "far lower than advertised" claims a new survey out today. The research, which was conducted by comparison website Broadband Expert, looked at over 3,500 mobile connections over a five month period. The company found that while users recorded an average download speed of 1.1Mbps, this was far lower than the speeds that operators were claiming to offer in these areas.
However, while it is possible to quantify and record fixed line broadband speeds with some degree of accuracy, critics have pointed out that the comparison of mobile broadband speeds is far more prone to distortion by the location of the user.
Speaking to the BBC, Rob Webber, commercial director of Broadband Expert defended his company's methods, "These are tests performed by users on the Broadband Expert website. They select their internet service provider, their promised connection speed, and the sort of connection they have. As a result, some providers got tested more than others and we did not have enough data on British Telecom or Virgin Mobile to give a valid result." he said.
Vodafone, who had the lowest percentage of advertised speeds according to the Broadband Expert survey, issued a statement saying that "reliability and consistency were more important to customers than speed". The statement read - "We have been careful to communicate what customers will typically experience from mobile broadband and give examples on our website to show how long a presentation, image or document will take to download using 1.2Mbps."
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