Test house, P3 Solutions, measured customer experiences during peak usage hours in 16 UK cities for all major UK mobile network operators. The results found T-Mobile to be fastest for web browsing and uploading files to the web, and delivered the fastest average performance for email.
T-Mobile’s upload speeds were found to be 44% faster than the closest mobile broadband competitor, meaning customers are able to upload and share files and photos faster than ever before. T-Mobile also has the fastest web-browsing experience on popular websites including the BBC and Google, allowing customers to surf from page to page significantly faster than they could on any other network. The consistent speed of T-Mobile’s mobile broadband network, an essential condition for practical usage, was also highlighted by the tests.
Emin Gurdenli, chief technology officer, at T-Mobile UK, said: “This programme of regular, independent testing is playing a crucial role in helping us improve and shape our mobile broadband service. The fact that we have come out top for three quarters in a row shows this approach is yielding real benefits to customers in terms of improved network performance and reliability. This has been achieved at a time of unprecedented growth in the number of our mobile broadband customers, which has driven an increase in total data traffic of more than 300% since mobile broadband hit the market in late 2007.”
T-Mobile first commissioned P3 Solutions in Q2 2008 to conduct a benchmarking programme using a customer-centric methodology. Network performance is measured against everyday applications such as browsing the most visited web sites; streaming video; downloading a 3MB music file; uploading a 1MB file and email performance with a 500KB attachment. To replicate actual usage patterns, all measurements are performed not earlier than 11am and not later than 11pm, seven days a week.