Study Shows Impact of Tourism on Mobile Broadband Speeds in Ceredigion
The Growing Mid Wales programme and network analyst firm Streetwave have used their ongoing mobile connectivity study in Ceredigion (Wales) to reveal what sort of impact tourism has on mobile broadband performance in seaside towns (there’s a “major” drop in data speeds) and thus where EE, Vodafone, Three UK and O2 may need to upgrade.
Just to recap. Streetwave have been harnessing waste (bin / refuse) collection lorries to map mobile network coverage and speeds in the area since earlier in the year (here, here, here, here and here). In this setup, the trucks are installed with four off-the-shelf Smartphones using software from Streetwave on top, which run continuous network tests (once every 20 metres in rural areas and 5m in urban areas) as the vehicles go about their routes.
However, as well as providing a general performance map, the data can also be used to see how mobile network performance changes over time in specific areas and that’s very relevant when it comes to understanding the impact of tourism season. Put another way, a big influx of new visitors, over a narrow period of time, often puts extra strain on local mobile networks and backhaul capacity.
Advertisement
With its stunning coastline and rich cultural history, Ceredigion remains a popular location for tourists to visit during the summer holidays. With a native population of just 73,000, the county usually receives 300,000 – 350,000 visitors in the month of August. The study thus selected the popular tourism destination towns of Cardigan, New Quay and Aberaeron for closer analysis.
The mobile coverage performance for all of the primary mobile network operators (MNOs) was then analysed across nearly every street in the towns during peak tourist season (August) and non-peak months (July & September). As you’d expect, the results show that all of the operators saw the median download and upload speeds that they deliver fall significantly during August.
Impact of Summer Tourism on Ceredigion Mobile Data Speeds
| Operator | Average Fall in Download Speed in August | Average Fall in Upload Speed in August |
| EE | -30% | -19% |
| O2 | -55% | -35% |
| Three | -24% | -24% |
| Vodafone | -20% | -27% |
The results also reveal that O2 was “most effected” by the increase in tourist numbers, seeing average download speeds fall by 55% and average upload speeds fall by 35%. The wider impact can also be visualised, such as when we look at the following map of Cardigan below, although sadly there isn’t an interactive version of this for the public to access, yet.
Advertisement
Following the capture of this data, the GMW Digital Programme is now working with various operators and neutral host providers to increase capacity in these seaside towns, as well as other tourism ‘hot-spots’ across Mid Wales.
However, it should be said that the mobile operators will already be aware of this sort of impact from their own internal network usage data, and they often increase capacity during expected periods of high load. But it remains to be seen whether they will go beyond their usual tweaks in order to address the issues. Sometimes there can be complex and costly reasons that may limit an operator’s ability to adapt.
Cardigan
August Performance:
Advertisement
| Operator | Download speeds (Mbps) | Change in DL Speeds | Upload Speeds (Mbps) | Change in UL Speeds |
| EE | 22.4 | -20% | 5.6 | -23% |
| O2 | 3.4 | -41% | 2.3 | -46% |
| Vodafone | 9.5 | -2% | 4.9 | -22% |
| Three | 16 | -12% | 3.5 | -27% |
New Quay
August Performance:
| Operator | Download speeds (Mbps) | Change in DL Speeds | Upload Speeds (Mbps) | Change in UL Speeds |
| EE | 6.4 | -54% | 2 | -13% |
| O2 | 3.1 | -72% | 2 | -55% |
| Vodafone | 8.7 | -38% | 3.2 | -35% |
| Three | 7.7 | -50% | 0.7 | -46% |
Aberaeron
August Performance:
| Operator | Download speeds (Mbps) | Change in DL Speeds | Upload Speeds (Mbps) | Change in UL Speeds |
| EE | 15.5 | -28% | 2.6 | -13% |
| O2 | 9.7 | -49% | 4 | -2% |
| Vodafone | 24.8 | -17% | 4.6 | -26% |
| Three | 16.7 | -15% | 1.7 | -26% |
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.
« Virgin Media O2 UK Set to Open New Office in Lanarkshire
Poor Mobile Signal and Notspots Mapped in Nottinghamshire UK »
I think that the Streetwave author will find that O2 was the most Affected but hey, education, mutter, mutter.