Average 4G mobile download speed in UK stands at 15.1 Mbps and 3G at 6.1 Mbps, while upload average 4G speed is 12.4 Mbps, and 3G speed is 1.6 Mbps, new Ofcom report reveals.
According to the latest Ofcom report published Thursday, average 4G speeds across UK is twice as fast as 3G speed offered by UK’s four main mobile operators – EE, O2, Three, and Vodafone.
Ofcom carried out 210,000 tests of 4G and 3G download speed, upload speed, web browsing speed and latency at both indoor and outdoor locations across five major UK cities including Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, and Manchester between March and June 2014.
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The research report revealed that EE offered the fastest 4G speeds across the five UK cities at 18.4 Mbps followed by O2, Vodafone and Three offering 15.5 Mbps, 14.3 Mbps and 10.7 Mbps 4G speeds respectively.
Three offered the quickest load times for Web browsing on 4G (0.62 seconds on average to load a web page) as well as on 3G connections (0.93 seconds on average to load a web page). EE trailed behind for the second spot
taking 0.76 seconds on average to load a web page on 4G and 1.05 seconds, on an average on 3G connections.
In terms of location, Edinburgh came out on top in terms of 4G download speeds with 16.8 Mbps, while Manchester topped in terms of 4G upload speeds, measuring in at 13.2 Mbps. London recorded the slowest average downlink speeds
of the five cities, both on 3G (4.1 Mbps) as well as on 4G (13.1 Mbps). Glasgow’s average 4G web browsing speeds were the lowest, taking 0.82 seconds to load a web page.
“Helping to improve mobile coverage and quality of service are important objectives for Ofcom,” said Ofcom.
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“Today’s report is intended to help consumers understand differences in performance between 3G and 4G, and this kind of research is designed to support consumers in choosing a service that best suits their needs.The findings are also expected to encourage providers to improve their performance.”
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Ofcom noted that over 9 million people in the UK currently have access to a 4G service, and this figure is expectedly to rise rapidly in future with increasing 4G coverage and launch of more 4G-capable devices.
