Conclusion

Hopefully some of our suggestions will improve your chances of getting a good connection speed. However, as we hinted at the start, performance is not just a matter of signal quality. Existing Mobile Broadband technology (HSPA) is a significant improvement over earlier methods but it remains inefficient at capacity management.

Even with good reception, performance can sometimes be poor because the areas local mobile node might become overloaded with users eating into its limited (shared) capacity. This can lower speeds and increase the likelihood of disconnection. Worse still is the fact that it doesn’t take many users for such a situation to arise.

There is at least some light on the horizon in the shape of 4th Generation (4G) Mobile Broadband technologies, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE). LTE is capable of handling many more users thanks to improved capacity management; it can also deliver significantly faster speeds and better latency. LTE will not directly improve signal quality but, in a couple of year’s time, the Mobile Broadband experience should start getting better for everybody with supporting hardware.