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November 1, 2013

After 4G launch, mobile internet speeds double in London

After the launch of o2 and Vodafone's 4G services, London's mobile internet speeds more than double.

By Kate Heslop

Since the launch of o2 and Vodafone’s 4G services two months ago, mobile internet speeds in London and the surrounding areas have more than doubled.

According to thousands of independent scientific tests by RootMetrics across the capital, Vodafone has download speeds of 9.5 Mbps and upload speeds of 4.7 Mbps (upload) compared to O2’s 7.1Mbps (download) and 3.7 Mbps (upload).

EE remains the fastest and highest rated overall network. Following the launch of its double speed 4G network, it has recorded exceptionally fast average speeds of 19.3 Mbps (download) and 12.9 Mbps (upload). Its speeds are up to 249% faster than O2 (upload) and 174% faster than Vodafone (upload).

Using these speeds, it now takes Londoners less than a second to buffer and listen to music online, and is nearly twice as fast as the average fixed-line broadband.

EE’s fastest recorded download speed was a single test that hit 90.5 Mbps on Eastern Avenue in Ilford. That was 32.5% faster than Vodafone’s top download speed recorded of 68.3 Mbps in Ashford, Surrey, and 40.7% faster than the top download speed of 64.3 Mbps that O2 recorded just off Piccadilly Circus.

With three of the four networks now offering 4G, Three customers will be looking forward to their new 4G service launching as the current service struggled to compete with rivals. Whilst average speeds on its 3G network are essentially unchanged since tests carried out in June 2013 (from 5.5 Mbps to 5.4 Mbps for download and from 1.8 Mbps to 1.6 Mbps for upload), the network significantly trailed the rest of the pack on speed and email download times. Interestingly, though, Three tied EE for overall app and web speed performance despite its generally slower speeds.

Bill Moore, CEO and president of RootMetrics said: "The results of our 86,225 independent tests across London show that O2 and Vodafone have made a great start with their 4G networks, and consumers should be enjoying notably faster speeds. Certainly compared to other rollouts of 4G we have seen, London has got off to an impressive start. The even better news is that with more 4G masts lighting up every day, we are seeing increasing speeds in the capital as time goes on. But with three networks now competing for 4G customers, Londoners should take a close look at both price and performance before choosing: especially outside the centre, 4G is not evenly deployed, so it’s important to get a sense of which network will provide the best service where you live and play before committing."

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