With the introduction of its 4G service and integration of the Orange and T-Mobile networks, EE is now ranked top in Belfast for overall mobile performance. The operator’s average mobile internet speeds were the fastest we’ve recorded in Belfast to date at 10.8 Mbps (download) and 6.2 (upload). But although mobile performance is improving in Belfast, it still has some way to go to catch up with the best mobile internet speeds available in some other major UK cities. The latest London figures were 13.6 Mbps (download) and 8.4 Mbps (upload), while in Edinburgh speeds clocked 17.1 Mbps (download) 11.0 Mbps (upload).
At the same time, Three has significantly improved its 3G network. Its average mobile internet download speed has more than tripled to 6.1Mbps since the same tests were carried out in March 2013. Three was also the only operator to show an average time to load a webpage of below one second, but came last for how long it took to download 10 emails. Vodafone did this in the fastest time at 3.6 seconds.
Bill Moore, CEO and President of RootMetrics commented: “The results of our 26,000 independent tests in Belfast have thrown up some interesting findings. There are some fast speeds available for Belfast residents ready to move to 4G or Ultrafast plans, but at the same time the fastest accessible speeds aren’t reaching the same levels as rival capitals London and Edinburgh, so there is still room for improvement.”