Home » UK ISP News Archive » Article Tag: 3G (556 Posts)

Articles for Category Tag - 3G

COVID-19 – O2 UK Zero Rates Data Usage on Help Websites

26th March, 2020 (16 Comments)

Customers of mobile operator O2 may be pleased to know that they’re zero rating access to key websites that are providing financial, health, emotional guidance and other support during the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) crisis, which means that accessing them via mobile broadband won’t count toward your data allowance.

Xbox Live Issues Plague Three UK’s 4G Mobile Home Broadband UPDATE

9th March, 2020 (162 Comments)

Some customers of Three UK’s home 4G broadband service, such as those with their Huawei B535 or other mobile WiFi routers and “unlimited data“, have since the end of February 2020 been suffering from problems when connecting to and downloading content from Microsoft’s XBox Live service.

Birmingham Named Fastest of 16 UK Cities for Mobile Broadband

9th March, 2020 (3 Comments)

RootMetrics has published the results from their biannual H2 2019 study of mobile broadband (3G and 4G) speeds across 16 of the United Kingdom’s most populated cities, which found that people in Birmingham received the fastest aggregate median download speeds of 28.9Mbps. Sadly last place Newcastle only scored 20.1Mbps.

Sometimes 3G Mobile Broadband in the UK is Faster than 4G

4th March, 2020 (13 Comments)

Crowdsourced data analysis firm Tutela has noted that older 3G based mobile networks may not make the most efficient use of radio spectrum, although their data shows that there are still plenty of occasions where they can still end up delivering faster internet speeds than superior 4G networks.

First Mobile Mast LIVE in Scotland’s Delayed 4G Infill Scheme UPDATE

20th February, 2020 (16 Comments)

Good news, the Scottish Government‘s £25m 4G Infill Programme, which originally aimed to improve rural mobile coverage (mostly notspots across the Highlands and Islands) by building a network of 45 new masts for UK mobile operators to use (here), has finally built its first mast. Bad news, they’re well behind schedule.

Ofcom Repay £218m to UK Mobile Operators for Overcharging

19th February, 2020 (5 Comments)

Ofcom has lost its appeal against last year’s ruling by the UK High Court of Justice (here), which ordered them to repay £218m to mobile operators as part of restitution for their handling of a licence fee hike to the 900MHz and 1800MHz spectrum bands (i.e. £82.4m to EE, £54m for Vodafone, £54m for O2 and £26m for Three UK).

train wifi mobile internet connectivity uk 123rf

Infrastructure Commission Slams Naff Mobile on UK Railways

6th February, 2020 (4 Comments)

The National Infrastructure Commission (NIC) has today warned in a new report that “inadequate” mobile (4G, 5G etc.) connectivity continues to be a big problem on the UK’s railways, which they blame on the government being “slow” to fix related gaps in connectivity due to a lack of leadership.

nPerf Publish 2020 Study of UK Mobile Networks, Vodafone Best

5th February, 2020 (13 Comments)

As if we didn’t have enough conflicting studies. French company nPerf has now decided to start publishing an annual study of UK mobile operator (mobile broadband) performance, which is based off crowd-sourced data. Overall the inaugural study finds that Vodafone UK provided the “Best Mobile Internet Performance” in 2019.

New Mobile Operator Zevvle Has a Different Twist on PAYG Data

5th February, 2020 (22 Comments)

A new Birmingham-based Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) called Zevvle has launched with a different twist on pay-as-you-go data (mobile broadband) pricing, which is intended to help prevent customers from overpaying for data they don’t use by discounting the price as you consume an increasing amount.

EE Awarded Top UK Mobile Network for H2 2019 by RootMetrics

4th February, 2020 (6 Comments)

RootMetrics has published their biannual H2 2019 study of mobile network (3G and 4G) performance across the United Kingdom, which once again named EE (BT) as the best overall operator and they also delivered the fastest aggregate median (average) mobile broadband download speed of 36.5Mbps.

radio spectrum tower mast united kingdom

GWS Reveals the Best Mobile Operators for 36 UK Cities – 2020

3rd February, 2020 (7 Comments)

Global Wireless Solutions has published the results of their latest “extensive national” study into mobile network (4G etc.) performance across 36 cities, which is one of the few to name O2 as the overall “most reliable network” (followed by EE, Vodafone and Three UK). But it’s not just a question of mobile broadband speed.

Map of UK and Europe Ranked by Mobile Broadband Speed – 2020

3rd February, 2020 (5 Comments)

RFBenchmark has just published their annual crowd-sourced study of Mobile Broadband (3G, 4G, 5G) speed across Europe, which reveals that the United Kingdom delivered an average download rate of 17.6Mbps (up from 17.2Mbps last year), uploads of 8.7Mbps (up from 8.54Mbps) and latency of 62ms (improved from 71ms).

UK Gov Warns – No More FREE EU Mobile Roaming from 2021, Maybe

30th January, 2020 (40 Comments)

In a somewhat unsurprising development the Government has again warned UK people that the current “guarantee of free mobile phone roaming” throughout the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway “will end” on 1st January 2021, which marks the conclusion of the imminent 11 month Brexit transition period.

Broadband Requirements for Xbox’s New Console Streaming

20th January, 2020 (16 Comments)

Microsoft has just made their new Xbox Console Streaming feature more widely available, which means that anyone with an Xbox account (and on the Xbox Insider program) in the UK can now try their new remote play video gaming service (streamed from your console to a remote device). But you’ll need a reasonable broadband ISP speed.

O2 UK Follows Vodafone into Testing an OpenRAN Network

16th January, 2020 (1 Comment)

Mobile operator O2 (Telefonica UK) has today announced its own plans for an Open Radio Access Network (OpenRAN), which works to standardise the design and functionality of mobile network (3G, 4G or 5G) hardware and software (i.e. making network deployments more cost effective). Vodafone also plans O-RAN trials (here) in rural areas.

EE and Vodafone Come Top of New 2020 UK Mobile Benchmark

14th January, 2020 (8 Comments)

Mobile operators EE and Vodafone have today come top in umlaut‘s (formerly P3) annual 2019 UK Mobile Network Test, which used a range of different benchmarks to test 3G and 4G (voice and data / broadband) services across 21 cities, 29 towns and along 10,700km of major roads.

Farmers Survey Highlights Poor UK Rural Mobile and Broadband

13th January, 2020 (36 Comments)

Once again the National Farmers Union has published the results from its annual online and telephone based survey of several hundred members, which found that just 17% of farmers had access to “superfast broadband” (24Mbps+) speeds (up from 16% last year and 4% in 2015) and 15% have no indoor mobile signal at all.