About 66 percent of mobile broadband users in the United Kingdom seem to experience real-world downstream bandwidth below 1 Mbps on networks that in principle can operate up to 7.2 Mbps rates, according to the latest report from Broadband Genie.

 

The majority of products from 3 Mobile Broadband, O2, T-Mobile (News - Alert) and Orange Broadband are advertised at "up to" 3.6Mb, although the average user experience was just 0.87 Mbps, about 24 percent of the advertised top-end speed, Broadband Genie said.

 

The speed test, specifically designed for mobile broadband, was conducted throughout 2009 and included more than 3,600 tests. Just 16 -- about half of one percent -- managed a speed of more than 3 Mbps, Broadband Genie reports.

 

The difference between average and peak speeds is not unusual, though the magnitude of the divergence might surprise some observers. Recent tests by Ofcom, the U.K. communications regulator, have shown real-world for fixed broadband to fall in a range about half the top-rated potential speed.

 

The wireless environment is far harsher, as anybody who routinely tries to talk on a mobile in a brick or concrete building, away from windows, might understand.

 

The majority of the tests (65 percent) showed connections slower than 1 Mbps, with more than half of these (39 percent) actually below 0.5 Mbps. Some 26 percent got results between 1 Mbps and 2 Mbps, with less than seven percent getting 2 Mbps to 3 Mbps.

 

There was a barely noticeable increase in speed across the year, but nothing like the kind of wild predictions made by some that suggested mobile broadband would soon rival fixed-line for speed, Broadband Genie notes.

 

It remains to be seen whether new 4G networks will fare any better, at least during peak hours. Part of the reason, aside from an inherently more difficult transmission environment, is that mobile devices themselves can differ in their efficiency, and actually affect end user experience, say executives at Spirent Communications (News - Alert).

 

"The processing power of any device has to support any number of things," said Nigel Wright, Spirent Communications VP. And the contention for device resources can cause unintended consequences. "Push e-mail can cause a call to drop, for example," he said.

 

The network capacity issues with LTE (News - Alert) will be huge, he added. Data cards will expect to download gigabytes without any issues, but end users might be in for quite a shock.

 

In the past, there have been modest gaps between what you expect and what you get, in wireless bandwidth, said Wright. For LTE, the difference between headline rates and actual experience will be a wide gap, because such networks are so dependent on environmental conditions, he said.

 

"A big shock is coming," he said. "People will be disappointed.”