Capital wins mobile race with fastest downloads

SMARTPHONE users in Edinburgh enjoy the fastest download speeds, according to Ofcom.

A r eport i nto customers’ broadband experiences researched the performance of 4G and 3G smartphones across the four main mobile operators – EE, O2, Three and Vodafone – in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Birmingham and Manchester.

The report measured download speed, upload speed, web browsing and latency between March and June this year.

Edinburgh was found to have the fastest download speed for both 4G and 3G, while London had the lowest.

Manchester enjoyed the fastest upload speeds, with Glasgow having the lowest.

Glasgow also suffered the slowest 4G web browsing speeds, while London had the fastest.

Of the cities analysed, Edinburgh had the highest levels of latency – the time it takes data to travel to a third-party server and back, which is i mportant to reduce delays during video calls.

Ed Richards, Ofcom Chief Executive, said: ‘ Improving mobile quality of service is an important area of Ofcom’s work.

‘Our research both incentivises mobile providers to offer a higher quality of service, while helping consumers choose a mobile package that best suits their needs.’

The report, Measuring mobile broadband performance in the UK, is on Ofcom’s website.