Mobile broadband speeds are on average much slower than advertised.

According to a recent survey conducted by comparison website Broadband Expert, providers of UK mobile broadband are not delivering services at the speeds advertised.

The survey, which collected data from 3,342 broadband connections over a five month period, discovered that the average download speed recorded was 1.1Mbs. On average, mobile broadband download speeds are advertised as reaching a maximum speed of 4.5Mbs.

Vodafone recorded the fastest speeds with an average of 1.3Mbs, but it also delivered the lowest percentage of its advertised speeds – just 18% of the advertised 7.2Mbs.

T-Mobile recorded the slowest speed on average of just 0.9Mbs, 20% of its advertised speed.

Rob Webber, Commercial Manager at Broadband Expert, commented: “It is completely unreasonable for a provider to advertise unrealistically high speeds that the vast majority of customers will never receive.

“Advertising unrealistic speeds will not help the long term growth of mobile broadband or the reputation of the providers if customers feel they are being misled.”

Some analysts have questioned the validity of the survey as the mobile broadband is notoriously difficult to quantify and providers were not measured equally.

The survey was conducted through the Broadband Expert website, with users performing tests on their own mobile broadband. As all the data given was on a voluntary basis, some providers were not measured as much as others. Little data was collected on BT and Virgin Mobile.

In response to ICM’s article, Vodafone commented: “Whilst the research showed Vodafone’s network offered the fastest speeds for mobile broadband, our customers tell us that their most important needs are reliability and consistency from their mobile broadband. Speed is not the main requirement.
 
“We are doubling our network capability to 14.4 Mbps. This means even more of our customers will enjoy greater reliability and better average connection speeds on their existing devices. We’ve been careful to communicate what customers will typically experience from mobile broadband and give examples on vodafone.co.uk to show long a presentation, image or document will take to download using 1.2Mbps.  
 
“We have signed up to the code of best practice and were recently awarded the Best Consumer Mobile Broadband for 2009 by the ISPA, with the judges saying they were impressed by our coverage, range of contracts and the options we give for using mobile broadband overseas. We’re in the process of ensuring all our website information is consistent for customers so they can get details on network coverage whether outdoor or indoor, wherever they are.”