Spirent Releases Updated User Experience Rankings of 4G Mobile Data Services in UK

Sunnyvale, Calif. – November 12, 2014 – Spirent Communications, the leader in user experience analytics for mobile devices and services, has released updated user experience rankings of 4G mobile data services in the UK. The updated rankings are part of an on-going study commissioned by O2 and are based on over 175,000 data tests on the EE, O2, Three and Vodafone networks. The updated study results include new data service measurements from 12 cities collected from August to September 2014 and previous measurements from 8 cities collected from May to July 2014 as part of an earlier study. To compile the rankings, each mobile network was evaluated across user experience categories including web browsing speed, file download/upload speed and data service reliability. All measurements were performed using Spirent’s user experience analytics systems and iPhone 5c devices purchased at retail stores by Spirent.

Key findings from the study conducted across the 20 cities are as follows:

1. For average web browsing speed, O2 ranked 1st of 4 networks in 13 cities and joint 1st in 1 city. Aggregated across all cities, O2 ranked 1st at an average time of 2.4 seconds with the lowest ranked network at 3.2 seconds.

2. For average file download speed, O2 ranked 1st of 4 networks in 11 cities. Aggregated across all cities, O2 ranked 1st at an average speed of 10.9 Mbps with the lowest ranked network at 5.7 Mbps.

3. For average file upload speed, O2 ranked 1st of 4 networks in 11 cities and joint 1st in 1 city. Aggregated across all cities, O2 ranked 1st at an average speed of 5.5 Mbps with the lowest ranked network at 3.0 Mbps.

4. For combined web browsing, file download and file upload speed, O2 were fastest measured or joint fastest measured in 11 of the 20 cities.

5. For combined web browsing, file download and file upload reliability, O2 were ranked joint 1st in 12 of the 20 cities.

6. For data service reliability, aggregated across all 20 cities, O2 ranked 1st of 4 networks at a 98.2% success rate with the lowest ranked network at a 97.3% success rate.

“To ensure the accuracy and integrity of our results, the British Approvals Board for Telecommunications (BABT) audited our measurement campaign,” said Des Owens, General Manager, Service Experience at Spirent. “That included a review of our methodology and results as well as witnessing the performance of a set of measurements. Our customers trust us to provide reliable, quantifiable and independent analytics to help them understand the user experience of mobile devices and services. We were pleased to have BABT audit our results and validate the integrity of this study.”

All measurements in the study were performed with Spirent’s Datum system for measuring and analyzing the user experience of data services. New measurements of user experience were performed in the following 12 cities: Birmingham, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Coventry, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Plymouth and Wakefield. In addition to the new measurements, the study included previously collected data from the following 8 cities: Bradford, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hull, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield and Sunderland.