SHOCK As Study Finds Naff Mobile Broadband Coverage on UK Trains

A new study from Global Wireless Solutions has discovered what most UK rail commuters already knew, that Mobile Broadband connectivity on the train is more often than not a pile of poop. Indeed 30.3% of mobile Internet tasks and 1 in 7 voice calls attempted on commuter train routes failed during testing. But Vodafone and EE put in the best performance.

GWS’s engineers carried out a series of “high-level tests” (they don’t say how many or at what time) and these were even conducted on ten of the most popular commuting routes into and out of London, thus you’d perhaps expect the service to be a lot better than in rural areas. But on average 23.2% of 3G data packets and 37.2% of 4G data packets didn’t even make it to their intended destinations.

The research also found that voice and data failures are more likely to occur when a train is travelling from 0 – 5MPH than when it is travelling between the speeds of 5 – 50MPH, although failures are still most likely to occur when a train is travelling above 50MPH (crossing reception thresholds at speed can often cause signal loss).

In addition, St. Pancras was said to have “by far and away the worst connectivity of all of the stations tested“, with engineers experiencing an average of 99 voice and packet data failures (across the four operators) while testing in the famous station.

The Top 10 Worst Stations (Avg. Number of Failures)

1. St. Pancras 99
2. Radlett 53
3. Kentish Town 43
4. Upminster 42
5. Elstree and Borehamwood 36
6. Hendon 33.5
7. St. Alban’s City 33
8. Cricklewood 27.5
9. Kidbrooke 27
10. Ockendon 26

The report also found that Vodafone’s subscribers get the best overall network reliability and 3G data service (speeds of 2Mbps on average during testing), while EE subscribers win for 4G data speeds and come close on reliability (5.6Mbps). Sadly Three UK’s 4G network is clearly displaying its lack of coverage.

GWS used an array of 12 Samsung Galaxy S4s to gather data for its study in June 2014, with three SIMs from each of the four major UK operators (3, EE, O2 and Vodafone) being used during testing; one SIM was used for voice testing, another for 3G-only data testing, and one SIM for 4G-only.

However it’s important to reflect that Network Rail and related train companies are already spending significant amounts of money to upgrade the United Kingdom’s rail-focused communications and broadband infrastructure, although this is expected to take another few years to complete. In the meantime the patchy coverage is likely to continue.

PS – Tongue firmly in cheek on that title.