Comparison site BroadbandGenie.co.uk has analysed the results from 3600 anecdotal speed tests to reveal that the average UK Mobile Broadband speed is just 0.87Mbps, falling well below the rates of 3.6Mbps to 7.2Mbps advertised by most mobile operators. Shockingly just 16 (0.5%) people managed a speed of more than 3Mbps!

The majority of the tests (65%) were slower than 1Mbps, with more than half of these (39%) actually below 0.5Mbps. Some 26% got results between 1Mbps and 2Mbps, with less than 7% getting 2-3Mbps. There was a barely noticeable increase in speed across the year. The results are almost identical to a similar study conducted by another comparison site during September (here).

Future LTE ( 3.9G / 4G ) Mobile Broadband services might improve the situation but even then we suspect that the technology will remain more useful as a compliment rather than a replacement for fixed land-line broadband ISPs. The capacity problems and low revenues from Mobile Broadband will not be resolved overnight and could potentially get worse for a year or two before they get better.