Brits blissfully unbothered by snail-paced mobile network speeds
- Reference: 1710927007
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/03/20/brit_mobile_habits/
- Source link:
According to mobile insights consulting firm GWS, the network "sweet spot," the point at which consumer demands for network mobile speeds match what the operators deliver, sits between 1 and 5 Mbps.
This seems a little low to us, especially as the average download speed for UK mobile broadband is about 30 Mbps, [1]according to some estimates .
[2]
GWS claims that speeds in this "sweet spot" range allow the majority of UK mobile users to perform most of their activities in ways they find satisfactory, without the need for higher throughput.
[3]
[4]
It finds the majority of users are ok with the speeds they're getting, and aren't looking to change operator as a result. Just don't tell the mobile operators, please.
The research also claims that usage trends tracked by its app analytics platform, GWS Magnify, indicate that Elon Musk's X (formerly Twitter) is not even in the top 10 of the most used apps.
[5]
The number one app, based on mobile minutes of use, is Facebook. Next comes the Chrome browser, WhatsApp, Google Maps, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook Messenger, Instagram, Gmail, and Snapchat. Users spend 43 percent of their daily mobile screen time on social media and browsing apps alone, according to GWS.
We find it surprising that Twitter isn't included in the top 10, although it was [6]noted last year that the Musk-owned platform had suffered a substantial fall in its total audience.
[7]
Brits now spend nearly five hours a day on their phones, or nearly a third of their time awake. Most of this is actually using a Wi-Fi connection, according to GWS, which suggests home or office use. Over a quarter of online time a day (26 percent, or 77 minutes) is access via a cellular network, while the remaining 74 percent (216 minutes) is access via Wi-Fi.
[8]Virgin Media sets up 'smart poles' next to cabinets to boost mobile network capacity
[9]Vodafone signs a 10-year, $1.5B deal with Microsoft that sheds European DCs
[10]Next BT CEO Allison Kirkby takes the wheel from next month
[11]BT misses deadline for removing Huawei from network core
This is backed up by figures that indicate 40 percent of users will only access a public Wi-Fi hotspot as a last resort if cellular access is not available.
According to the research by GWS, 69 percent of users in the country have been with their current operator for more than two years. It estimates that about 29 percent are sticking because they are locked into contracts, but notes that 31 percent are on SIM-only contracts, 20 percent on rolling plans, and 17 percent on pay-as-you-go, which indicates the majority could change operators if they wished to.
When it comes to changing operators, 24 percent of UK users are looking to switch this year. The top reason for this, at 38 percent of respondents, is that charges are too high. Poor signal and network blackspots are the reason for 31 percent of switchers, and network speed is a factor for some 21 percent.
[12]
Coverage and reliability continue to be the primary network-related pain points, according to GWS. The majority of UK mobile customers (64 percent) report experiencing at least a few reliability issues each week.
Vodafone customers report the fewest issues with their network coverage across the course of a week, the research shows, followed by Virgin Media O2. Three has the highest number of customers reporting frequent issues with their network coverage, followed by EE. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.broadbandgenie.co.uk/mobilebroadband/help/how-fast-is-mobile-broadband-guide-to-3g-4g-broadband-speed
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZfrBxGW47fMNOW@9pnTDRgAAAA4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZfrBxGW47fMNOW@9pnTDRgAAAA4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZfrBxGW47fMNOW@9pnTDRgAAAA4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/03/19/gws-image001.png
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2023/11/28/uk_twitter_stats_down/
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZfrBxGW47fMNOW@9pnTDRgAAAA4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2024/03/19/virgin_media_says_smart_poles/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/16/vodafone_microsoft_ai_decade_deal/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/10/next_bt_ceo_allison_kirkby/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2024/01/02/bt_missed_deadline_for_removing/
[12] https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/03/19/gws-image002.png
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Interesting list
Data [1]was only slurped from Android (see Methodology section). Apple keeps its precious for itself.
[1] https://gwsolutions.com/2024/03/15/uk-mobile-users-satisfied-with-speeds-in-the-sweet-spot-ranging-between-1-5mbps/
Re: Interesting list
To be fair, i can see why apple would refuse any apps that collect usage data 24/7, they likely dont even expose APIs for that.
Makes sense
Mobile experiences have been pretty optimized for slower network speeds. looking at the most used apps, 1-5Mbps is going to be more than enough to browse facebook, use whatsapp, use navigation, or watch a 480p youtube video (default quality while on mobile data, 720p on youtube is around 5Mbps bitrate i believe).
Websites may not be as snappy when loading, but you need to remember the majority of people are using older and/or cheaper phones, so they are not used to a snappy experience on their phone to begin with!
Having more bandwidth matters most with large downloads, which people don't want to do on connections with a data cap to begin with.
With network technology improving, mobile providers are quick to boast with increased network speeds you are never going to need or be able to use from a mobile device, but the true improvements are QoS-related. Especially improvements in MU-MIMO-related technology of 4G and 5G mean there is a better, more fair and faster distribution of bandwidth. Fast speeds are fine, but it's better to have 1Mbs together with 100 people, than it is to queue up with 100 people and access 100Mbs one at a time. the last in line is not going to be happy.
Re: Makes sense
For people using mobile data from a mobile phone (which, admittedly, is probably the majority), then that's probably true enough.
I'm mostly dependent on "mobile" services for my "fixed" connectivity these days: the price is increasingly comparable and the contractual tie-in is usually lower. For that type of usage, anything less than 20-30Mbit/sec can be painful. On the plus side, upload speeds often exceed those of FTTC and I can (recently) get download speeds of over 200MBit/sec on 5G though I'm not convinced the backhaul will sustain it once usage increases.
"the network "sweet spot," the point at which consumer demands for network mobile speeds match what the operators deliver, sits between 1 and 5 Mbps. This seems a little low to us, especially as the average download speed for UK mobile broadband is about 30 Mbps, according to some estimates."
Why would that be low?
The home connection is used for far more than just browsing, it's far more likely to see people doing actual work or watching lots more video, plus it's shared with a few other people on the same connection - so if 30Mbps is adequate at home, 5Mbps is more than adequate when out and about.
That said, the SPEED of the thing doesn't really matter to me. I don't care about the speed when mobile half as much as actually being able to connect. And there are so many deadspots once you get outside cities that that becomes a problem. And I'm counting GPRS/Edge/2G as a dead-spot in this instance. Great for phone calls, pathetic for anything data-bound.
Even then I know of basic GSM deadspots - I work in one! A town outside London, built up with offices and houses and schools and other buildings, and yet there are still places where you can't take or receive even a basic phone call even if you step outdoors, and that just shouldn't be happening in this day and age.
I don't care about speed, sort the coverage. If that means 4G/5G upgrades, then do it, and limit the speed on the individual connections.
It's insane that when I go into London on the train I have recorded 500Mbps on a basic mobile phone but if I want to take a phone call from near a station just a couple of stops outside London, I have to wander a few hundred yards down the road to get basic GSM signals.
They're supposed to do things like ensure that they increase coverage every time they plan major speed upgrades so that nobody is left behind, but it just doesn't happen. The cabinets / masts get upgraded, sometimes, but new ones are never added.
It's insane that the core cellular networks are not nationalised infrastructure, with the providers competing on top and paying a percentage to ensure that the infrastructure gets to constantly expand and upgrade.
Can confirm. Have fibre internet but no mobile service. Great stuff.
To confirm the confirmation... I have internet and no mobile signal which is bloody annoying when certain companies... Amazon for example, want to send you an SMS confirmation code to log on with. Such a year 2000 mentality. And no I don't have wifi calling and no SMS app seems to work.
The home connection is used for far more than just browsing, it's far more likely to see people doing actual work or watching lots more video, plus it's shared with a few other people on the same connection - so if 30Mbps is adequate at home, 5Mbps is more than adequate when out and about.
4K Netflix wants ~25Mbs, so if someone is watching telly and a phone updates itself then bye bye the film...
Icon because piracy would provide a better experience in this case...
The great thing about 4G and 5G is that bandwidth distribution is actually one of the main improvements, where it basically has a pool of connections that it can dynamically allocate based on demand.
this issue is that they use a shorter wavelength, which drastically reduces range and material penetration.
Small sliver of hope: 5G allows for a lot of funky network configurations, allowing mesh-like configurations, or a remote tower using 5G as a backbone instead of fiber. This may decrease the cost of building new towers in areas with poor coverage, but there still needs to be an incentive to make that investment as long as this infrastructure is privately managed. The business case is not there unless the government brings a bag of cash.
Download speed is immaterial once it's fast enough for further improvements to be unnoticeable. For my part I'd just like a signal at home that's consistent enough to make and receive phone calls. Consistency seems to have vanished along with 3g. Coincidence?
I believe 3G had worse coverage per-base-station than 2G, 4G or 5G (i.e. both the stuff that came before it and the stuff that came after it). So you'd expect consistency to improve if somebody swapped out the 3G base stations for 4G base stations, one-for-one.
Based on the Facebook usage, I'm deducing they exclusively polled boomers.
Facebook is installed by default on most phones adn most people don't bother to uninstall. They're watching you even if you don't know it.
re : Facebook is installed by default on most phones
Even on iDevices?
As a 'boomer' and an owner of an iPhone (2nd hand) I've never seen a FB app. It would not matter anyway as all of FB domains are blocked by my home router. The same goes for all social media sites.
As for boomers using FaceBook? None of my boomer friends use it these days. Like Twitter, it has descended into a pile of rancid dog poo.
Perhaps you might like to update your opinion of us boomers? Many of us grew up using computers long before the Internet.
I'd just like something over 3G speeds at home please...
Probably ok
Speed tests are down from early 5G, but I'm generally able to do what I need to do. Teams and Google Meet sessions are pretty reliable. Manchester is problematic with EE (especially in the centre), where I often need to switch mobile data off and back on again when on the move (even with an apparently good signal). I think they have a problem handing off between cells. This was not a problem in the early days of 5G and might (I think) be down to the replacement of Huawei equipment not going smoothly.
Still a thing?
At least in Blighty.
Interesting list
The lack of Safari in the top 10 means one of two things.
1) the El Fruity world does little or now web browsing from their 'i" device
or
2) Apple does not release this sort of stat.
I prefer to think that it is 2).
Out of the top 10,, I use just one of them and that is rarely.