back to article Cheer up: UK mobile networks are perkier than Germany's

The UK's mobile infrastructure is notorious for its hotspots and poor coverage, and we got LTE later than almost everyone else in Europe. But when it works, it actually works better than the Germans'. STL Partners has measured the real world performance of apps and webpages over mobile networks in five European countries. They …

  1. BenBell

    Well, as a customer of Three - I can't often complain. Good signal and good speed at home, at work, at the climbing wall, at the gym, at the supermerket, at the parents and up-n-down the M1 when working (well, I never seem to get call dropouts)

    ..but then I go to the Inlaws - only a couple of miles from Lincoln - and I get absolutely nothing! I have to go outside to make a call or send a text. Interestingly, the rest of the family (a mix of GiffGaff, Vodafone, O2) all get great signal and speed there too.

    Everyone complains when the net/call signal drops - it's only human - you're paying for a service and are being inconvenienced by it's unavailability - but by virtue of it being a complaint-worthy event - we can't be doing too bad at all.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      3 'Not Spot'

      There's another big one on the A23 Crawley Bypass. Less than 800m from the Town Centre.

      PITA coz her indoors parents live smack in the middle of it.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I agree. Many people seem to claim this or that network is "crap" - the fact is they're all crap and you just have to use the one that works best for you. I'm on Three and it's great at home, work, parents and in-laws (that's a real boon, I can tell you - the ability to escape the tedium via my phone). On the other hand it's crap in plenty of other places I've visited.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "Many people seem to claim this or that network is "crap" - the fact is they're all crap"

        Not crap so much as difficult to justify further rollout with the UK's very low pricing. Have you noticed the owners trying to sell their networks as they make no money?

        1. TechGeezer

          ...And yet:

          Of course, some are more interested in facilitating the GCHQ spy network than actually dealing with their own actual business of mobile service... V. V. poor show....

  2. handle
    Pint

    "Better latency than never"

    Well done - you deserve a beer for that strapline.

  3. unix.beard

    Shouldn't that be "notorious for notspots" not hotspots?

  4. dotdavid

    "The latency on 4G networks is governed by various factors including, as Andrew Seybold explained here, how far you are from the mast."

    Wouldn't countries with higher population densities have a natural advantage then?

  5. a_yank_lurker

    Notspots? Like at the supposed coverage maps of US carriers. The large parts of some states that never have had any cell services. Specifically look at some of the western states. If you have any phone service it is a landline.

  6. Frednurk

    As a UK resident and a very frequent vodafone DE mobile traveller throughout many remote areas of Germany, I can catagorically state that Germany wipes the board whe it come to mobile data coverage. No contest. Who researched this article?

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