Halts reliance on self-reporting from operators
Ofcom will test the actual performance of the UK’s mobile networks to produce coverage and performance stats, rather than rely on the operators’ self-reporting. The regulator has commissioned Epitiro to analyse the mobile broadband performance of the UK’s five national operators from September 2010 to January 2011, with Ofcom expecting to publish a report in early 2011.
Epitiro will use its ipQ ‘Consumer Experience’ measurement technology to capture a range of key performance indicators (KPIs) including accessibility, reliability and throughput speeds. The data collected will be analysed to determine how broadband speeds vary by a number of factors including operator, geography and time of day. Ofcom will also use the information to compare it to operators’ claims and advertisements. Previous coverage maps have been based on operator claims.
“Epitiro has developed consumer experience analysis technology specifically for the mobile industry.” said Gavin Johns, CEO, Epitiro.
Key issues that can affect quality of service consumer experience include contention at the serving cell, insufficient backhaul capability, low signal strength, cell handoff and traffic management policies.
Epitiro published the UK Mobile Broadband report 2009, analysing data collected from December 2008 to March 2009. (http://www.epitiro.com/resources)
That report found that people typically received less than 1Mbps from mobile broadband, and on average were able to acess 24% of the maximum “up to” speeds advertised. The average ping time was found to be 150msec, exceeding the 100msec time recommended for game playing by 50%.
However, the report did find that TCP download times increased 11% over the period. With 18 months having passed it will be interesting to see what Epitiro now finds. Will network investments have boosted performance, or will increased numbers of users impact on the overall average performance?