Smartphone cities
2016 Annex
Mobile broadband performance in London
Research Annex
Publication date:June 2016
1 About this document
This document outlines the results of Ofcom’s research into the performance of the retail
networks of the UK’s four national mobile network operators: EE, O2, Three and Vodafone in
central London over five days in March 2016. This is a supplementary case study to Ofcom’s
Smartphone Cities
report published in March 20161.
The purpose of the testing was to compare the mobile broadband performance on each
network on Category 4 and Category 6 (newer) type handsets. This is because it is possible
that the technological updates featured on newer handsets (Category 6 and above), as well
as the capability to pick up carrier aggregation technology2, can contribute to an enhanced
mobile broadband performance experienced by consumers.
This report presents results for: download speeds, web browsing times, upload speeds,
YouTube streaming resolution and network response times. The results presented here are
not directly comparable to those in previous reports due to the evolution in our testing
methodology3.
It is important to note that the results presented below are a case-study limited to a snapshot
of performance in central London over the five days of testing in March 2016 and do not
reflect UK-wide performance of each MNO.
This report is part of a wider programme of work by Ofcom into mobile quality of service,
which includes our interactive coverage maps.http://stakeholders.ofcom.uk/market-data-research/other/telecoms-research/broadband-
speeds/smartphone-cities/2
More information on handset technological updates and carrier aggregation technology can be found
in on page 2 3
More information on how the testing reported here differs from that conducted in previous reports
can be found on page 14
Contents
SectionPage
1 Introduction 1
2 Methodology used for testing 2
3 London case study result 4
4 Testing methodology 14
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