UK Consumers Demand Faster Mobile Broadband Speeds

There was a time when mobile broadband first came out that it really felt like a new and exciting technology. In fact, in some parts of the world it?s actually more popular than using standard, fixed line, broadband. The problem? The speeds and reliability of the service, in the UK at least, has left a lot to be desired.

The latest monthly survey from news site ISPreview has revealed that while around half of the 412 respondents have a genuine interest in the technology, 25% want the speed of the service to be improved. Other stumbling blocks for many consumers include larger usage allowances, better reliability and lower prices.

The problem with mobile broadband is that the speeds of the service are often barely recognisable as broadband and fall much slower (sometimes more than four times slower) than ADSL packages. Consumers buying into mobile broadband generally expect similar speed and service to what they are used to.

Although most operators advertise speeds of up to either 3.6 or 7.2 mbps, the actual real life speeds are often much slower, and the technology actually generates very little revenue for the mobile broadband providers.

Currently, mobile broadband is not a serious alternative to ADSL in the UK. Even if you can get good speeds restrictive bandwidth limits means that much of the Internet is ?off limits?, such as video streaming sites and music downloading. Long Term Evolution technology that will be introduced in 2011 could help alleviate speed and reliability problems in the future.

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