Test and measurement vendor Spirent Communications recently shared its report on 4G mobile data quality in 20 major cities across England, Scotland and Wales.
The study, commissioned by telecom operator Telefonica O2, included over 47,000 calls and 170,000 data tests over a three month period from May to July.
Spirent conducted measurements its user experience analytics systems and Apple iPhone 5c devices purchased at retail stores by Spirent.
The Spirent study said the measured call completion success rate among all operators was comparable, ranging from 98.8 percent to 99.0 percent, with no operator exhibiting a statistically relevant difference relative to other operators.
The web browsing speeds for Telefonica O2 on the 5 tested websites ranked 1st out of 4 measured networks at an average time of 2.7 seconds, with the lowest ranked network at 3.4 seconds.
The file download speeds for Telefonica O2 and one other network were jointly ranked 1st out of 4 measured networks with average speeds of 11.3 Mbps and 11.6 Mbps, respectively, and with the lowest ranked network at 6.4 Mbps.
The file upload speeds for Telefonica ranked 1st out of 4 measured networks at an average speed of 5.5 Mbps with the lowest ranked network at 3.0 Mbps.
The web browsing success rate for Telefonica O2 ranked 2nd out of 4 measured networks at 97.9 percent, with the highest ranked network at a 98.6 percent success rate and the lowest ranked network at 96.4 percent.
The file download success rate for Telefonica O2 ranked 2nd out of 4 measured networks at 98.6 percent, with the highest ranked network at a 99.5 percent success rate and the lowest ranked network at 97.4 percent.
The file upload success rate for Telefonica O2 ranked 1st out of 4 measured networks at 99.2 percent, with the lowest ranked network at 97.6 percent.
Des Owens, general manager, Service Experience at Spirent, said: “To ensure accuracy, we only use real, unmodified devices for our user experience measurements – the same devices consumers purchase in retail stores. We measure the key factors that matter to users like the ability to make calls and browse to web sites and we do it all with a statistically rigorous sampling methodology.”
editor@telecomlead.com