A survey by Broadband Genie names T-Mobile as the best mobile broadband
service. The Broadband Genie Road Trip 2010 Awards test both the download and
upload speeds as well as stability, coverage and rate the bundled software. The
tests, which included the six main mobile broadband providers (O2, Orange, 3,
T-Mobile, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone) were carried out ‘on the move’ during a
350 mile rail trip across two days.
T-Mobile achieved top position in half of the categories including top
downloader/uploader. Vodafone scores well for stability and software. The
overall winner was T-Mobile followed by Virgin.
“Getting mobile broadband to work well on the move presents some real
problems for providers, especially in more rural areas, but as we work towards
establishing a universal minimum standard for UK broadband, these challenges
need to be met.T-Mobile should be congratulated on the improvements it has made, with some
especially noteworthy speed test results of more than 3Mb on the move. However,
we hope that by next year’s Road Trip the others will have not only reached
these speeds, but significantly surpassed them. Most of the ISPs showed no
major progress from last year’s tests, despite several putting up their ‘up to’
speed claims.”Chris Marling, Editor, Broadband Genie
| Category | Winner | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|
| Downloader | T-Mobile | Virgin Media |
| Uploader | T-Mobile | 3 |
| Most Stable | Vodafone | Orange |
| Coverage | T-Mobile & Virgin Mobile | – |
| Dongle Software | Vodafone | T-Mobile |
| Overall | T-Mobile | Virgin Mobile |
Full results for Broadband Genie
tests
Results appear not to indicate a significant improvement over the previous
year and are based on speed tests as well as downloading of podcasts, streaming
audio and video.
Test your broadband speed
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I am confused why they are assessing the performance of Virgin Mobile given they resell T-Mobile’s network and have no infrastructure of their own at all involved in providing the service. Hardly a surprise they perform well if T-Mobile do.
Apparently T-Mobile did perform better.. might be related to dongle for example. Consumers buy from Virgin so might be confused if they weren’t features I guess.
Don’t 3 And T-Mobile share 3G network infrastructure? I must say I have no problem with T-Mobile’s coverage both 2G and 3G its a shame they don’t let mobile users use HSDPA though.
no, not yet i believe it is about october-ish time
Dongles really are the decider.
My new Zoom dongle (sim free) highest achievement was for 5.4Mb, it also reaches 1.4Mb upload (max for Vodafone network), usual download speeds are 2.5Mb+ on inner-city masts otherwise ~2Mb but both increase in evening.
Apparently error correction eats away at the bandwidth quite a lot (especially download).
In my experience Vodafone is the best as they don’t mind you using sims in phone and dongle as long as you dont breach your usage tariff.
T-mobile works fine for me, and I get HSDPA on my HTC desire as well 🙂
My son has been using T-Mobile broadband for a couple of years now and seems pretty pleased on the whole. He had been using Orange up until then for phone calls and occasional broadband but found them expensive and poor coverage for good signals.
He first started using T-Mobile in Germany while doing his 3rd year work placement for his CompSci degree, and has found that he gets a very good value deal for PAYG broadband with excellent 3G coverage.
His main gripe is when he travels from Aberystwyth to Bracknell where we live, because CrossCountry Trains kill mobile signals dead and in spite of allegedly messing around with repeaters have not solved this major problem in over 5 years of knowing about it