Study Finds Three UK’s 3G Switch-Off Boosted Speeds, But Hurt Coverage
Mobile network analyst firm Streetwave has used data gathered from across Northumberland (England) and Ceredigion (Wales) to examine the recent switch-off of 3G mobile services in those areas by Three UK, which resulted in median (average) mobile broadband download speeds rising by 22%, but “Essential Coverage” declined by 8%.
In case anybody has forgotten, Three UK is due to fully complete the process of switching off their old 3G network by the end of 2024 (here). Mobile operators have generally been compensating for the 3G switch-off in some areas by introducing upgrades to newer 4G and 5G services. The removal of 3G also freed up some radio spectrum that can be re-farmed for use by those modern services, which could boost network performance.
However, so far none of the mobile network operators have released any solid evidence to show the practical and statistical impacts of the 3G switch-off, which is what makes the latest data from Streetwave so useful when checking against their claims. Not to mention that the company’s approach to such testing goes a lot deeper and is more accurate than most other studies.
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Streetwave has been using bin (lorries) collections to map mobile coverage and performance in both areas, in collaboration with the local authorities. In this setup, bin collection vehicles are installed with four off-the-shelf smartphones using software from Streetwave on top, which run continuous tests of signal coverage and network performance (once every 20 metres in rural areas and 5m in urban areas) as the vehicles go about their routes.
The latest work was commissioned following concerns raised by residents regarding potential disruptions to mobile networks after the 3G switch-off. The results reveal that, during the data collection period, the percentage of connections made via 3G on Three UK’s network in Northumberland and Ceredigion have fallen from an average of 6% to 1%.
However, the data also shows that as Three’s 3G connections fell, median throughput speeds improved, yet ‘Essential Coverage’ declined. Streetwave defines Essential Coverage as being reflective of locations where the network provides users with connectivity of above 1Mbps download speeds, 0.5Mbps upload, and below 100ms (milliseconds) of latency (i.e. covering or allowing only the most basic of use cases / needs).
The Results
The median download speeds experienced by users rose by 19% in Ceredigion and 25% in Northumberland. Likewise, the median upload speeds experienced by users also rose by 19% in Ceredigion, but there was no change to median upload speeds in Northumberland. But ‘Essential Coverage’ for Three’s network has fallen across both councils in the period of study – falling by 5% in Ceredigion and 8% in Northumberland between July and October.
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Streetwave noted that they also conducted a similar survey with Norfolk County Council to assess the impact of Three’s 3G switch-off in Norwich. However, no 3G connections were made by Streetwave’s data collection equipment in either July or October 2024, which meant they couldn’t create a comparison for that region. In any case, the switch-off is still in progress in other areas and Streetwave plan to continue monitoring related developments.
The company previously posted a similar study covering Vodafone’s 3G switch-off, albeit only in Northumberland, which revealed that the operator was providing ‘Essential Coverage‘ across 92% of locations in Northumberland (up by 3%) and their average mobile (data) download and upload speeds were also faster by approximately 10% after the switch off (here).
However, it’s worth noting that we don’t yet know what kind of baseline of change these areas typically experience over a longer period of time, which makes it difficult to be certain that all of these differences can be directly attributed to the 3G switch-off. Various other impacts, such as tourism (networks often boost capacity around busy periods) and general network upgrades, will also be playing a role.
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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, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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no boosted speeds here. 5g capped at 250mbps between 8am and midnight
The increase in median speed is due to there being fewer slow 3G connections in the mix. Nothing to do with boosting 5G speed.
250Mbps is already an order of magnitude higher than the median speeds shown in the tables.
Eventually the old 3G frequencies can be reused for additional 4G or 5G capacity (except where a 3G-only site has been completely switched off) but that won’t have much impact if you’re already getting 250Mbps.
When Three put 5G live at my local mast. it was limited to around 280Mbps for the first year while they waited for Virgin Media to install a 10Gbps backhaul connection.
Of course the coverage is going to be less, on one hand people want 5G, but on the other hand, the same people that want the 5G don’t want to see phone masts everywhere, you can’t win
I very much doubt the people wanting 5G are the same people who object to the masts.
Lol
As if they’re the “same people”
I’m sadly on Three and got multiple family members on Three, SMARTY and ID. Over the past few months in Bolton, we’ve seen a huge decrease in service quality. We are getting weak 4G & 5G signals, calls not connecting and speeds are up and down like a yoyo!
We’ve all been randomly having issues where we get voicemails but no missed calls and one family member has basically had very few calls in/out since August. We thought it was the network due to it happening to multiple people but it turns out hers was her phone which was 4G VOLTE capable but SMARTY told us that the VOLTE on her phone had an issue on their network, so we went out and got her a new 5G phone and that has now solved it.
None of this was happening before the 3G switch off. She had the phone since 2020, so clearly they didn’t think this through very well. I’ve no doubt there will be other people facing the same issues that have no idea what is going on.
Interestingly, I have dual-sim and my EE SIM had no such issues.
Well of course none of it was happening before 3G switch off, as devices which weren’t compatible with Smarty’s VoLTE will have been dropping down to 3G to make or receive calls.
It makes sense that you wouldn’t have the same issue on your EE SIM, as a) as an MNO rather than an MVNO, their VoLTE configuration is more likely to have been included in the firmware of different device manufacturers, and b) if your phone isn’t compatible with their VoLTE configuration, they still have a 2G network for it to drop down to for calls.
You make it sound like everyone else would know that My family member is 90! You think a 90 year old would know that his relatively new device (2020) would not be compatible with SMARTY’s 4G VoLTE?
Issues affecting all operators in the country:
– Network designed and built cheaply with small number of masts,
– Low masts covered by trees and building that were not there 20 years ago,
– No new masts,
– Slow radio uplinks
Exactly. There has been zero improvement in the last 10 years or so. Quite the opposite in fact, with most of us struggling to do even the most basic things while out and about. Indoor coverage has also remained largely unchanged (read = BAD), if not slightly worse after the 3G switch-off.
We need taller masts, and we need more of them. Simple as that.
There are many places where used to be stable H+ connection, after 3G switch off is nothing or one bar unusable 4G.
I’m on Smarty and suddenly can’t do remote job from my favourite pub in Epsom. 3G have me 10-11 Mbps, now with neatly non existent LTE 700 I have no data at all.
I binned my 3 4g mobile broadband off a couple of years ago (Oxfordshire) due to the quality of the connection going down and down, until I’d be speed testing at 25mb,but nothing would load. Not helped by Huawei pushing a router update that stopped me being able to tweak the bands the router used. The masts are so congested nowadays it’s terrible
Left Three couple weeks ago as not getting/receiving calls despite signal bars. Shambles company. Joined EE and everything is grand
I think Three should have done stuff to 3G only sites before switching off in my opinion. There’s about 5 here in the city if my math is right, completely unacceptable when all of EE’s sites are 4G ready with 5G available on a few of them and O2/VF are mostly 4G ready with 5G on the majority of sites for VF (only one 2G only site on O2).
Been with 3 for many, many years
Never had the same issues in the past that people always moaned about, was happy with their 3G coverage
Their 4G is a lifeline out here because I can only get 3mbps down /300kbps up landline broadband, but got a solid 40mbps 4G connection when it launched here over 10x faster than landline
But recently it has been running at <10mbps consistently at home until midnight, and while I'm out and about around east & west midlands the data signal quality and throughput has fallen to a crawl – And standalone 5G is obviously nowhere in sight
Three is barely useable these days around the large area my work takes me including many cities, despite their bullish 5G boasts, and things are getting worse, not better