BandRich Claim 36Mbps Average Speed in Rural Cumbria 4G Broadband Trial

BandRich has today claimed that its outdoor E500 router successfully managed to achieve average Internet download speeds of 36.49Mbps (Megabits), which occured at the edge of the network during EE’s recent trial of a new Fixed Wireless 4G (LTE at 1800MHz) based Home Broadband service in rural Cumbria (England, UK).

The 18 month long trial, which took place in the Northern Fells and Threlkeld area of the picturesque Lake District (here and here), came to an end last week after EE confirmed the official launch of its new Fixed Wireless 4G product (here) and plans for an expanded roll-out.

At the time EE reported that the network could deliver average speeds of 24Mbps using their chosen Huawei B953 router (cost of hardware: £69.99). But today BandRich has claimed that their similar E500 device, which was also tested as part of the trial, ultimately delivered even better performance.

As well as average 4G download speeds of 36.49Mbps, the router also achieved an average upload speed of 14.88Mbps, which is significantly higher than most mainstream fixed line superfast broadband connections and also eclipses the woeful 1Mbps level of older copper based ADSL2+ lines.

Dr. Wen-Yi Kuo, BandRich’s Chief Executive Officer, said:

“The results from the trial completely validate the performance of the E500 series, proving that it meets a real customer need when mobile coverage is poor, particularly in rural areas.”

Paul Coffey, EE’s Head of Strategic Development, added:

“When it comes to rural broadband the BandRich E500 delivered excellent data speeds when deployed on the cell edge, where not all devices would connect. The unit performed very well in challenging weather conditions.”

The BandRich E500 is a similar spec LTE Category 3 (i.e. up to 100Mbps) device to the Huawei router and likewise features several high-gain internal antennas. It too would generally be affixed to an outdoor wall where the signal is strongest. Apparently the kit was used by around 10% of trialists in the Threlkeld area, which included several homes and businesses.

Sadly we could not find any pricing information for the E500 and it’s difficult to judge the actual comparable performance of different hardware without having access to all of the trial data.