Half of UK users experience average mobile speeds under 30 Mbps
More than half (53%) of UK mobile users experience average download speeds of less than 30Mbps, according to figures from mobile benchmarking company Opensignal.
This means that most users do not average speeds that are classed as ‘superfast’ mobile broadband.
The data also shows that 14.3% experience average download speeds of less than 10Mbps, while 4.7% of users have no mobile signal at all for at least 5% of the time.
Opensignal used crowdsourced data from hundreds of thousands of devices between the start of December 2022 and the end of February this year for its analysis.
The report highlights the challenges mobile operators face in attempting to fill the gaps in fixed broadband services and achieve superfast speeds (defined in both the UK and EU as at least 30Mbps) using mobile technologies such as 4G and 5G.
The analysis also found regional variations in the speeds experienced by mobile users in the UK.
Of the 12 UK cities considered in the study, five had a higher proportion of users than the national average of 14.3% experiencing average speeds of less than 10Mbps.
Users in Bristol, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Hull routinely experienced download speeds of 10Mbps or less.
Cities where a smaller proportion of users experienced such low average speeds included Sheffield (where only 6.3% experienced 10Mbps), Nottingham (8.8%) and Birmingham (8.8%).
Users in London were slightly below the national average, with 12.1% experiencing average speeds of 10Mbps or less.