By: MarkJ - 28 May, 2009 (8:36 AM) - Score: 13338 - Mobile Broadband
Comparison site BroadbandGenie has conducted an interesting test of Mobile Broadband operators by taking their services on a two day, 350 mile, train trip from Cambridge to London, then London to Bournemouth, and back again. Virgin Media came top overall, followed closely by Vodafone . The following USB Modems (Dongles) were used in the tests: Huawei E160 x3 ( O2 , Orange , Vodafone ), Huawei E169G ( Three (3) ), Huawei E170 ( T-Mobile ), Huawei E172 ( Vodafone ).
Genie did more than 10 speed tests for each modem at various points during the trip, including King's Cross and Bournemouth. The majority were done on the move in a mixture of rural and urban areas. Vodafone's was the only modem to complete all of these speed tests, with Virgin Media , Orange and 3 failing two. T-Mobile and O2 failed three tests each (fail recorded when no signal found).
It's not completely clear what the 'Dongle Software' award is and how it was judged, although overall the tests offer an interesting insight into the reality of Mobile Broadband performance. Vodafone's results are also very similar to what we found in our recent 'How to Use Mobile Broadband' article.
Genie did more than 10 speed tests for each modem at various points during the trip, including King's Cross and Bournemouth. The majority were done on the move in a mixture of rural and urban areas. Vodafone's was the only modem to complete all of these speed tests, with Virgin Media , Orange and 3 failing two. T-Mobile and O2 failed three tests each (fail recorded when no signal found).
Road Trip Downloader 2009 winner: Virgin Media
Runner up: Vodafone
Road Trip Uploader 2009 winner: Vodafone
Runner up: O2
Road Trip's Most Stable 2009 winner: O2
Runner up: Orange
Road Trip Coverage 2009 winner: Vodafone
Runner up: Virgin Media
Dongle Software 2009 joint winners: T-Mobile and Virgin Media
Downloading top speed: Taking O2 and 3 as a rough average performance (around 0.75Mb), Vodafone (1.2Mb) was twice as fast and Virgin Mobile (1.8Mb) three times as fast. T-Mobile's top speed (0.35Mb) was about half of O2/3, while Orange could only manage a top speed of around one sixth of the average (0.1Mb, just over 100Kb).
Upload top speed: Vodafone (0.55Mb) was a clear winner, and T-mobile a clear loser (0.08Mb), while there wasn't too much daylight between O2 (0.35Mb), Orange (0.3Mb), 3 (0.3Mb) and Virgin Mobile (0.25Mb).
Upload top speed: Vodafone (0.55Mb) was a clear winner, and T-mobile a clear loser (0.08Mb), while there wasn't too much daylight between O2 (0.35Mb), Orange (0.3Mb), 3 (0.3Mb) and Virgin Mobile (0.25Mb).
It's not completely clear what the 'Dongle Software' award is and how it was judged, although overall the tests offer an interesting insight into the reality of Mobile Broadband performance. Vodafone's results are also very similar to what we found in our recent 'How to Use Mobile Broadband' article.
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Comments: 10
anonPosted: 28 May, 2009 - 1:40 PM
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I find this baffling since virgin and t-mobile share exactly the same infrastructure. I am highly suspicious of the robustness of your testing.
MarkPosted: 28 May, 2009 - 3:03 PM
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how can virgin come out on top and tmobile at the bottom when they share the same network did u turn the dongle on !!!
H3GPosted: 28 May, 2009 - 3:26 PM
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how can this be possible if virgin don't even have a network infrastructure they just piggy back off t-mobile who clearly failed this test miserably...
i would go back and give virgin their bribe back
you have been busted
HarryPosted: 28 May, 2009 - 5:35 PM
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lol...what a joke.its true that virgin doesnt have any equipment.They only piggyback on tmobile.what a watery result
Jason OPosted: 28 May, 2009 - 5:39 PM
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RIGGED!
Tmobile = virgin infrastructure, they got access to the same masts and pipes!
MarkJPosted: 28 May, 2009 - 5:48 PM
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Some very good points there, I think they should only have included the main operators and not resellers. It certainly suggests a flaw in the testing, although at the time of writting this news I couldn't recall whether VM were using Vodafone or T-Mobile's infrastructure. Maybe it was BT that used Vodafone.
MarkPosted: 28 May, 2009 - 6:45 PM
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Virgin have been very long partners of T-Mobile and have never used Vodafone. BT do use Vodafone as a network partner to provide services.
pablo_surfsPosted: 7 June, 2009 - 11:33 AM
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could it be the hardware that made the difference between virgin and tmobile, i however i find it very very suss on how virgin came out on top????
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