Carriers In The UK Are Having Problems Providing Actual 4G Speeds To The Consumers

It seems like carrier in the UK are having issues delivering their promised LTE speeds. At the beginning of this year, about 6 million consumers in the UK had access to a 4G LTE network, though it seems that’s not the case anymore. According to Quartz, UK carriers have been having issues delivering those speeds considering the amount users that have switched over to the 4G LTE plans. OpenSignal, a well-known signal measurement company, O2’s average connected time to 4G network dropped from 50% to about 37%, compared to the July – October period last year. Overall average speed of 4G LTE connections has fallen from around 19Mbits/sec in September last year to just 10Mbits/sec by August this year. This might have something to do with connections where the signal is rather weak, but why are network carriers selling those rather expensive 4G plans to people who live in such places, wonders Quartz. EE is basically the only UK carrier which has a solid 4G signal outside of London and according to OpenSignal even EE’s signal isn’t the best outside of England’s capital.

At least 3G data speeds have remained solid despite the fact many more people are using them now. According to OpenSignal the fastest average speeds in the UK were: Vodafone was the fastest (13.21Mbits/sec, EE was second (11.78Mbits/sec), O2 was placed third (10.5Mbits/sec) and Three was behind O2 with an average speed of 8.95Mbits/sec. Vodafone was deemed the worst mobile network in the UK by RootMetricks earlier this year, probably because Vodafone doesn’t offer 4G coverage in most parts of the United Kingdom. You might recall that EE announced 4G+ network and basically promised that it will double the speeds of their current 4G LTE network. It’s kind of hard to believe that will work as planned considering all this info. EE is currently a rather solid carrier, but considering the state of 4G LTE in the UK at the moment it is kind of hard to believe this carrier can follow up on its promise and double its existing 4G LTE speeds without damaging other areas of its coverage. Let’s wait and see what will happen, hopefully UK consumers won’t have to face the drop in 3G connectivity speeds anytime soon.