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UPDATE The Top 20 Largest British Cities for 4G Mobile Speed and Availability

Wednesday, May 3rd, 2017 (8:42 am) - Score 1,349

Crowed-sourced data firm OpenSignal has today published a bit of extra information from last month’s ‘State of Mobile Networks‘ report, which reveals that Middlesbrough / Teesside delivered the best 4G coverage (82.7%) and Stoke-on-Trent is top for Mobile Broadband speed (26.6Mbps).

The initial report harnessed crowd-sourced data from 30,793 Smartphone users (535 million tests) to reveal how 4G (LTE) and 3G based Mobile network availability, latency and Mobile Broadband speeds varied, by each mobile operator, in the United Kingdom (here). However that report was very general and gave most of its awards to mobile operator EE.

By comparison today’s addition claims to compare the top 20 “largest cities” in Britain by 4G based Mobile Broadband speeds and network availability, although a few of the included “cities” could perhaps be better described as large towns.

In terms of 4G network availability, Middlesbrough tops the rankings because Smartphone users there were able to achieve a connection some 82.7% of the time. Sadly Bournemouth and Poole in Dorset came bottom with an availability score of 67.5%.

It’s worth considering that the official claims of 4G coverage by mobile operators are often significantly higher than this, with OpenSignal’s approach being able to offer a perhaps more real-world perspective of actual user experiences. Mind you such testing might also be impacted by indoor use, where reception is often weaker (note: most home users will automatically swap to WiFi).

opensignal april 2017 uk top 20 cities by 4g availability

As for 4G data speeds, the best performing “city” was Stoke-on-Trent with an average download speeds of 26.4Mbps, which compares reasonably well with OpenSignal’s recorded national speed average of 22.9Mbps. Sadly the bottom of the pack was occupied by Brighton and Hove, which achieved a result of just 17.6Mbps.

On the other hand even the slowest of the top 20 is still able to deliver faster speeds than most ADSL2+ based fixed line home broadband connections, which of course remains the connection method of choice for a little over half of the United Kingdom’s residential consumers.

opensignal april 2017 uk top 20 cities by 4g speed

As ever ‘top list’ style reports like this one are rather limited because we only get a reduced picture of the country’s performance in certain areas, although OpenSignal’s website includes a useful interactive UK map for checking how different network operators perform in each part of the country.

UPDATE

Most of the comments we’ve received for this article have been bland and predictable (not worth printing), although Cityfibre has at least offered another perspective.

Greg Mesch, CEO at CityFibre, told ISPreview.co.uk:

“These findings are symptomatic of a much greater problem – the UK’s aging copper-dependent communications infrastructure.

While it’s important that mobile operators deliver the speeds and services their customers their customers expect, they have been held back by the limited availability of fibre infrastructure to connect their mobile masts. We have shown in a project with Three, that full fibre can increase the data traffic to and from a mobile mast by 380%.

Now more than ever, it is crucial that Ofcom and the UK Government work to catalyse and accelerate the roll-out of new fibre networks. This vital infrastructure is the best and only future-proof foundation for mobile connectivity and all other forms of digital communication.

CityFibre is already working closely with mobile operators and with full fibre networks in more than 42 cities, over 7,800 mobile masts now have access to scalable, high-bandwidth infrastructure capable of enhancing performance, boosting coverage for users.

If the UK is to plan and prepare effectively to meet future demands, we need to get to the cause of the problem and not just the symptom.”

Mark-Jackson
By Mark Jackson
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook and .
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