European Carrier Mobile

Broadband Network
Performance

SECTOR REPORT

European Carrier Mobile

Broadband Network
Performance
February 2011
Matt Lewis, PhD
Lead Analyst

ARCchart
78 York Street
London
W1H 1DP
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 33 00 88 1355
Fax: +44 33 00 88 1350
service@arcchart.com

ARCchart is an independent research and consulting firm focusing on all aspects of the wireless
communications sector. Based in London, ARCcharts depth and breadth of analysis provides a global
perspective on wireless technology and industry developments. Combining original thinking with
exceptional knowledge and experience, ARCchart assists clients in making sound commercial
decisions about technologies, market strategies and competitive positions. ARCcharts strategic
advice covers all aspects of the wireless value-chain - ranging from semiconductors and WLANs to
network operators, handsets and mobile applications.

This report draws upon research and analysis conducted by all the ARCchart information groups. Use
of this report by any third party for whatever purpose should not, and does not, absolve such third
party from using due diligence in verifying the reports contents. Any use which a third party makes
of this document, or any reliance on it, or decisions to be made based on it, are the responsibility of
such third party. ARCchart, its affiliates and representatives accept no duty of care or liability of any
kind whatsoever to any such third party, and no responsibility for damages, if any, suffered by any
third party as a result of decisions made, or not made, or actions taken, or not taken, based on this
document. ARCchart does not make investment recommendations, in this report or otherwise, and
nothing in this report should be interpreted as an opinion by ARCchart either on market forecasts or
on the prospects of specific companies.

European Carrier Mobile Broadband Network Performance

Executive Summary
The marriage of wireless data networks with the smartphone has ignited a paradigm shift in
consumer demand for mobile Internet access far beyond simple messaging and email, and the
growing popularity of mobile broadband-enabled tablets, e-books, laptops and netbooks is being
driven by a range of demographics including residential consumers and the mobile workforce.
Carriers are now using mobile data as their weapon of choice in the fight against the
commoditization of voice and falling ARPU.
With so much at stake it is imperative that carriers have networks which can consistently and
reliably deliver good data performance to their customers. In this report we show there is wide
variation in how effectively carriers are achieving this objective today and there is a risk that
carriers which develop a reputation for inferior performance will suffer high churn and an overall
loss of subscribers.
This study is based on data speed and latency measurements collected using a speed test
smartphone app. This approach has allowed ARCchart to collect millions of individual test
readings from tens of thousands of users who have conducted tests for virtually every mobile
carrier in virtually every country in the world. This report focuses on European operators and
ARCchart has estimated averages for download speed, upload speed, latency and overall network
quality for 94 carriers in 28 European countries.
Analysis of the test measurements shows that all GSM data technologies are encountered
amongst European mobile operators, namely GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA, HSDPA and HSPA+, and 67%
of all readings were at a 3G level. By utilising a graphical representation of test reading
distribution, a profile of each carriers network performance is constructed, providing insight into
the data technologies in play.
A wide variation in performance is observed, with some mobile operators achieving data speeds
two or three times faster than competing carriers in the same market. For example, in Germany,
T-Mobile shows the countrys fastest download average of 1,459 Kbps while E-Plus manages just
649 Kbps. In the UK, Hutchisons upload average is 646 Kbps, while Orange is just 212 Kbps.
A carrier performance matrix was developed in order to determine which mobile operators
achieve the best overall performance across the four metrics measured in this study download,
upload, latency and network quality. The results show that Hutchison (Three) Denmark has the
best overall mobile broadband network of all the European carriers examined, followed by
Mobilkom in Austria. Five of the top ten best performing carriers are based in Scandinavia.

European Carrier Mobile Broadband Network Performance

A league table was also developed for countries, ranking each country based on the download
performance of its carriers networks. Three Scandinavian countries make it into the top ten, as
do Bulgaria and Croatia. Belgiums networks are the weakest, and the country ranks bottom, with
the UK and Germany not far off.
The test data also reveals valuable metrics unrelated to network performance, such as the carrier
market share for both the iPhone and Android handsets, and the popularity of these two
smartphones for each country. We are also able to develop a measure of overall smartphone
popularity (penetration) of for each market. This shows that Finland, the Netherlands and
Switzerland have the highest smartphone penetrations while Turkey, Portugal and Serbia have the
lowest.
The report reveals that in most markets there are distinct performance differences between the
competing carriers. Consequently, we believe there is an opportunity for carriers to optimise their
mobile data pricing by differentiating their offering based on superior network quality. As
consumers continue to place increasing importance on access to the Internet at anytime from any
device, they will be prepared to pay premium for network reliability and performance.

ii

European Carrier Mobile Broadband Network Performance

Table of Contents
A. METHODOLOGY .................................................................... 1
A.1 | Data Source the App .................................................................................................... 1
| Motivation for Using the App ........................................................................................ 2
| Location ......................................................................................................................... 2
| Data Collection Period and Sample Size ........................................................................ 2
A.2 | Limitations of the App ..................................................................................................... 3
| Technology Profiling ...................................................................................................... 3
The Limitation ........................................................................................................... 3
The Solution .............................................................................................................. 3
| Carrier Identification...................................................................................................... 4
The Limitation ........................................................................................................... 4
Solution ..................................................................................................................... 4
| Network Reliability ........................................................................................................ 4
The Limitation ........................................................................................................... 4
| Handset Performance Variation .................................................................................... 5
The Limitation ........................................................................................................... 5
The Solution .............................................................................................................. 5
| Handsets versus Dongles and Connected Devices ........................................................ 6
A.3 | The Results ...................................................................................................................... 7
A.4 | Availability of the Raw Data ............................................................................................ 7

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European Carrier Mobile Broadband Network Performance

B. INTRODUCTION..................................................................... 8
B.1 | Real World Network Limitations ..................................................................................... 9
| Factors Affecting Network Performance ....................................................................... 9
Cell density................................................................................................................ 9
Distance .................................................................................................................... 9
Loading...................................................................................................................... 9
Backhaul.................................................................................................................... 9
Environment ............................................................................................................. 10
Spectrum................................................................................................................... 10
| Latency ........................................................................................................................... 10
| Real World Handset Limitations .................................................................................... 10
B.2 | Report Overview ............................................................................................................. 11
| The Average Performance ............................................................................................. 11
| Cellular Standards and Protocols Deployed .................................................................. 11
Using Test Readings to Determine Technology ........................................................ 11
Technology Observations ......................................................................................... 12
| Determining Mobile Broadband Quality ..................................................................... 14
Measuring Network Quality from the Test Data ...................................................... 15
| Determining Network Reliability ................................................................................... 15

C. COUNTRY ANALYSIS .............................................................17

C.1 | Download Performance .................................................................................................. 17
C.2 | Mobile Broadband Network Quality ............................................................................... 18
C.3 | Smartphone Popularity ................................................................................................... 19
| iPhone Popularity .......................................................................................................... 21
| Android Popularity ......................................................................................................... 21
| Overall Smartphone Popularity ..................................................................................... 23

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European Carrier Mobile Broadband Network Performance

D. CARRIER ANALYSIS ...............................................................24

D.1 | Overall Performance Carrier Ranking ............................................................................. 24
| Charts and Diagrams Explained ..................................................................................... 24
Data Speed Chart ...................................................................................................... 24
Summary Table ......................................................................................................... 24
Download Distribution Profile .................................................................................. 26
Device Market Share................................................................................................. 26
D.2 | Austria ............................................................................................................................. 27
| Country View ................................................................................................................. 27
| Carrier Analysis .............................................................................................................. 27
| Device Analysis .............................................................................................................. 28
D.1 | Belgium ........................................................................................................................... 30
| Country View ................................................................................................................. 30
| Carrier Analysis .............................................................................................................. 30
| Device Analysis .............................................................................................................. 32
D.1 | Bulgaria ........................................................................................................................... 33
| Country View ................................................................................................................. 33
| Carrier Analysis .............................................................................................................. 33
| Device Analysis .............................................................................................................. 35
D.1 | Czech Republic ................................................................................................................ 36
| Country View ................................................................................................................. 36
| Carrier Analysis .............................................................................................................. 36
| Device Analysis .............................................................................................................. 37
D.1 | Denmark.......................................................................................................................... 38
| Country View ................................................................................................................. 38
| Carrier Analysis .............................................................................................................. 38
| Device Analysis .............................................................................................................. 40

European Carrier Mobile Broadband Network Performance

D.1 | Finland............................................................................................................................. 41
| Country View ................................................................................................................. 41
| Carrier Analysis .............................................................................................................. 41
| Device Analysis .............................................................................................................. 43
D.2 | France.............................................................................................................................. 44
| Country View ................................................................................................................. 44
| Carrier Analysis .............................................................................................................. 44
| Device Analysis .............................................................................................................. 46
D.1 | Germany.......................................................................................................................... 47
| Country View ................................................................................................................. 47
| Carrier Analysis .............................................................................................................. 47
| Device Analysis .............................................................................................................. 49
D.1 | Greece ............................................................................................................................. 50
| Country View ................................................................................................................. 50
| Carrier Analysis .............................................................................................................. 50
| Device Analysis .............................................................................................................. 52
D.1 | Hungary ........................................................................................................................... 53
| Country View ................................................................................................................. 53
| Carrier Analysis .............................................................................................................. 53
| Device Analysis .............................................................................................................. 55
D.1 | Ireland ............................................................................................................................. 56
| Country View ................................................................................................................. 56
| Carrier Analysis .............................................................................................................. 56
| Device Analysis .............................................................................................................. 58
D.2 | Italy ................................................................................................................................. 59
| Country View ................................................................................................................. 59
| Carrier Analysis .............................................................................................................. 59
| Device Analysis .............................................................................................................. 61

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European Carrier Mobile Broadband Network Performance

D.1 | Netherlands..................................................................................................................... 62
| Country View ................................................................................................................. 62
| Carrier Analysis .............................................................................................................. 62
| Device Analysis .............................................................................................................. 64
D.1 | Norway ............................................................................................................................ 65
| Country View ................................................................................................................. 65
| Carrier Analysis .............................................................................................................. 65
| Device Analysis .............................................................................................................. 67
D.1 | Poland ............................................................................................................................. 68
| Country View ................................................................................................................. 68
| Carrier Analysis .............................................................................................................. 68
| Device Analysis .............................................................................................................. 70
D.2 | Portugal ........................................................................................................................... 71
| Country View ................................................................................................................. 71
| Carrier Analysis .............................................................................................................. 71
| Device Analysis .............................................................................................................. 73
D.1 | Romania .......................................................................................................................... 74
| Country View ................................................................................................................. 74
| Carrier Analysis .............................................................................................................. 74
| Device Analysis .............................................................................................................. 76
D.2 | Slovakia ........................................................................................................................... 77
| Country View ................................................................................................................. 77
| Carrier Analysis .............................................................................................................. 77
| Device Analysis .............................................................................................................. 79
D.1 | Spain................................................................................................................................ 80
| Country View ................................................................................................................. 80
| Carrier Analysis .............................................................................................................. 80
| Device Analysis .............................................................................................................. 82

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European Carrier Mobile Broadband Network Performance

D.2 | Sweden............................................................................................................................ 83
| Country View ................................................................................................................. 83
| Carrier Analysis .............................................................................................................. 83
| Device Analysis .............................................................................................................. 85
D.3 | Switzerland...................................................................................................................... 86
| Country View ................................................................................................................. 86
| Carrier Analysis .............................................................................................................. 86
| Device Analysis .............................................................................................................. 88
D.1 | UK .................................................................................................................................... 89
| Country View ................................................................................................................. 89
| Carrier Analysis .............................................................................................................. 89
| Device Analysis .............................................................................................................. 91

E. DISCUSSION & FINDINGS ......................................................95

E.1 | Status of HSDPA and HSPA+ ............................................................................................ 95
Correlation between HSPA+ and Data Throughput .................................................. 95
E.2 | Legacy Infrastructure Still Prevalent ............................................................................... 95
E.3 | Factors Affecting Performance ........................................................................................ 96
| Size Matters ................................................................................................................... 96
Population Size ......................................................................................................... 96
E.4 | Android Challenging iPhone ............................................................................................ 97
E.5 | Smartphone Penetration ................................................................................................. 97
E.6 | iPhone Exclusives Retain Advantage ............................................................................... 97
E.7 | Android Handsets Outperform iPhone............................................................................ 97

viii

European Carrier Mobile Broadband Network Performance

List of Tables
Table 1 - List of countries and cities covered in this research ........................................................... 3
Table 2 - HSDPA and HSUPA support by the four iPhone models ..................................................... 5
Table 3 - HSDPA user equipment categories.................................................................................... 14
Table 4 - Country download average league table .......................................................................... 17
Table 5: Country mobile broadband network quality ratings .......................................................... 18
Table 6 - Summary of network performance for Austrian carriers .................................................. 28
Table 7 - Summary of network performance for Austria Belgian .................................................... 31
Table 8 - Summary of network performance for Bulgarian carriers ................................................ 34
Table 9 - Summary of network performance for Czech carriers ...................................................... 37
Table 10 - Summary of network performance for Danish carriers .................................................. 39
Table 11 - Summary of network performance for Finnish carriers .................................................. 42
Table 12 - Summary of network performance for French carriers .................................................. 45
Table 13 - Summary of network performance for German carriers ................................................ 48
Table 14 - Summary of network performance for Greek carriers.................................................... 51
Table 15 - Summary of network performance for Hungarian carriers ............................................ 54
Table 16 - Summary of network performance for Irish carriers ...................................................... 57
Table 17 - Summary of network performance for Italian carriers ................................................... 60
Table 18 - Summary of network performance for Dutch carriers.................................................... 63
Table 19 - Summary of network performance for Norwegian carriers............................................ 66
Table 20 - Summary of network performance for Polish carriers.................................................... 69
Table 21 - Summary of network performance for Portuguese carriers ........................................... 72

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European Carrier Mobile Broadband Network Performance

Table 22 - Summary of network performance for Romanian carriers ............................................. 75

Table 23 - Summary of network performance for Slovak carriers ................................................... 78
Table 24 - Summary of network performance for Spanish carriers ................................................. 81
Table 25 - Summary of network performance for Swedish carriers ................................................ 84
Table 26 - Summary of network performance for Swiss carriers..................................................... 87
Table 27 - Summary of network performance for British carriers ................................................... 90

European Carrier Mobile Broadband Network Performance

List of Figures
Figure 1 - Approximate downlink speeds for various cellular air interfaces and protocols ............ 11
Figure 2 - Download distribution profiles for Finnish carriers ......................................................... 12
Figure 3 iPhone and Android popularity by country ..................................................................... 20
Figure 4 Smartphone popularity by country ................................................................................. 22
Figure 5 - Carrier league table, ranked by overall performance rating ........................................... 25
Figure 6 - Download distribution profiles for Finnish carriers ......................................................... 26
Figure 7 - Average download and upload performance for Austrian carriers ................................. 28
Figure 8 - Download distribution profiles for Austrian carriers ....................................................... 28
Figure 9 Austrian carrier market share estimate for iPhone and Android devices ....................... 29
Figure 10 - Average download and upload performance for Belgian carriers ................................. 31
Figure 11 - Download distribution profiles for Belgian carriers ....................................................... 31
Figure 12 Belgian carrier market share estimate for iPhone and Android devices ...................... 32
Figure 13 - Average download and upload performance for Bulgarian carriers ............................. 34
Figure 14 - Download distribution profiles for Bulgarian carriers ................................................... 34
Figure 15 Bulgarian carrier market share estimate for iPhone and Android devices ................... 35
Figure 16 - Average download and upload performance for Czech carriers ................................... 36
Figure 17 - Download distribution profiles for Czech carriers ......................................................... 37
Figure 18 Czech carrier market share estimate for iPhone and Android devices ......................... 37
Figure 19 - Average download and upload performance for Danish carriers .................................. 39
Figure 20 - Download distribution profiles for Danish carriers ........................................................ 39
Figure 21 Danish carrier market share estimate for iPhone and Android devices ....................... 40

xi

European Carrier Mobile Broadband Network Performance

Figure 22 - Average download and upload performance for Finnish carriers ................................. 42
Figure 23 - Download distribution profiles for Finnish carriers ....................................................... 42
Figure 24 Finnish carrier market share estimate for iPhone and Android devices ....................... 43
Figure 25 - Average download and upload performance for French carriers.................................. 45
Figure 26 - Download distribution profiles for French carriers........................................................ 45
Figure 27 French carrier market share estimate for iPhone and Android devices ....................... 46
Figure 28 - Average download and upload performance for German carriers................................ 48
Figure 29 - Download distribution profiles for German carriers...................................................... 48
Figure 30 German carrier market share estimate for iPhone and Android devices ..................... 49
Figure 31 - Average download and upload performance for Greek carriers ................................... 51
Figure 32 - Download distribution profiles for Greek carriers ......................................................... 51
Figure 33 Greek carrier market share estimate for iPhone and Android devices ......................... 52
Figure 34 - Average download and upload performance for Hungarian carriers ............................ 54
Figure 35 - Download distribution profiles for Hungarian carriers .................................................. 54
Figure 36 Hungarian carrier market share estimate for iPhone and Android devices.................. 55
Figure 37 - Average download and upload performance for Irish carriers ...................................... 57
Figure 38 - Download distribution profiles for Irish carriers ............................................................ 57
Figure 39 Irish carrier market share estimate for iPhone and Android devices ........................... 58
Figure 40 - Average download and upload performance for Italian carriers................................... 60
Figure 41 - Download distribution profiles for Italian carriers......................................................... 60
Figure 42 Italian carrier market share estimate for iPhone and Android devices ........................ 61
Figure 43 - Average download and upload performance for Dutch carriers ................................... 63
Figure 44 - Download distribution profiles for Dutch carriers ......................................................... 63
Figure 45 Dutch carrier market share estimate for iPhone and Android devices......................... 64
Figure 46 - Average download and upload performance for Norwegian carriers ........................... 66

xii

European Carrier Mobile Broadband Network Performance

Figure 47 - Download distribution profiles for Norwegian carriers ................................................. 66

Figure 48 Norwegian carrier market share estimate for iPhone and Android devices................. 67
Figure 49 - Average download and upload performance for Polish carriers ................................... 69
Figure 50 - Download distribution profiles for Polish carriers ......................................................... 69
Figure 51 Polish carrier market share estimate for iPhone and Android devices ......................... 70
Figure 52 - Average download and upload performance for Portuguese carriers .......................... 72
Figure 53 - Download distribution profiles for Portuguese carriers ................................................ 72
Figure 54 Portuguese carrier market share estimate for iPhone and Android devices ................ 73
Figure 55 - Average download and upload performance for Romanian carriers ............................ 75
Figure 56 - Download distribution profiles for Romanian carriers .................................................. 75
Figure 57 Romanian carrier market share estimate for iPhone and Android devices .................. 76
Figure 58 - Average download and upload performance for Slovak carriers .................................. 78
Figure 59 - Download distribution profiles for Slovak carriers ........................................................ 78
Figure 60 Slovak carrier market share estimate for iPhone and Android devices ........................ 79
Figure 61 - Average download and upload performance for Spanish carriers ................................ 81
Figure 62 - Download distribution profiles for Spanish carriers ...................................................... 81
Figure 63 Spanish carrier market share estimate for iPhone and Android devices ...................... 82
Figure 64 - Average download and upload performance for Swedish carriers ............................... 84
Figure 65 - Download distribution profiles for Swedish carriers ..................................................... 84
Figure 66 Swedish carrier market share estimate for iPhone and Android devices ..................... 85
Figure 67 - Average download and upload performance for Swiss carriers .................................... 87
Figure 68 - Download distribution profiles for Swiss carriers .......................................................... 87
Figure 69 Swiss carrier market share estimate for iPhone and Android devices.......................... 88
Figure 70 - Average download and upload performance for British carriers .................................. 90
Figure 71 - Download distribution profiles for British carriers ........................................................ 90

xiii

European Carrier Mobile Broadband Network Performance

Figure 72 British carrier market share estimate for iPhone and Android devices ........................ 91
Figure 73 - Carrier Top 20, ranked by download average ................................................................ 93
Figure 74 - Carrier Bottom 20, ranked by download average .......................................................... 93

xiv

European Carrier Mobile Broadband Network Performance

CHAPTER A

AMethodology
This report is based on the data speed and latency performance for 94 wireless
carriers operating within 28 European countries worldwide.
Using conventional techniques, the task of accurately measuring the wireless
network performance for individual mobile carriers around the world is a
mammoth undertaking. However, ARCchart has addressed this challenge by
leveraging a technique that involves individual mobile subscribers executing the
performance tests themselves using their handset. This approach has allowed us
to collect millions of individual test results from tens of thousands of users who
have conducted tests for virtually every mobile carrier in virtually every country in
the world.

A.1 | Data Source the App

The network performance data in this report was collected by an application (the
App) available for two mobile platforms, iOS and Android. The App is promoted
to consumers as a tool for testing the performance of the wireless network to
which their device is connected and is distributed free of charge. Typically, a
consumer will discover, download and install the App through a mobile app
Apples App Store and Android Market.
When launched, the App runs the following tests over the associated wireless
network:

Latency
Download speed
Upload speed

There is some complexity to how these tests are conducted by the App, but on a
simplified level latency is based on ping response times while data speeds are
based on the time taken to send and receive a file over the network.
Once the test is completed, the App presents the results to the user and transmits
the results back to a central database, along with the time, date, IP address and
the geographic location of the test.

2011 ARCchart
The material contained herein is for the individual use of the purchasing Licensee and may not be distributed to any other person or entity by such Licensee including,
without limitation, to persons within the same corporate or other entity as such Licensee, without the express written permission of Licensor.

European Carrier Mobile Broadband Network Performance

| Motivation for Using the App

There are several reasons a user will be inclined to install a network performance
applications on their phone and to run the App periodically over time. Many users
are interested in determining the network speed in the coverage areas they live,
work and spend prolonged periods of time. For some users this is simple curiosity
while for others such information can influence how they use their phone while in
certain locations for example, is it better to wait until returning home to
download a music file if the speed test App shows that the network in the current
areas has poor data speed performance? Or it is worth using a VoIP application,
like Skype, if the App shows that the current network provides good data speed
and poor latency?
Another popular use case is to help troubleshoot data connection problems on
the handset. For example, users with a device showing a strong wireless signal but
experiencing problems receiving email or connecting to the web can use the App
to determine whether an actual Internet connection is present and sufficient
bandwidth is available.

| Location
The location data, in the form of longitude and latitude coordinates, not only
allows us to identify the country of origin, but also the city, town or even street. In
theory, the exact base station might be identified, although this was not
attempted for this report.
While it is possible to determine the country in which the test was run from its IP
address, the exact location (city, town etc.) is only possible on devices with GPS.

| Data Collection Period and Sample Size

This report is based on data collected by the App for iPhone and Android devices
during Q3 2010 (July to September 2010) for 28 European countries,
corresponding to a total sample size of over two million individual performance
tests. This data was filtered to focus on the capital cities in these countries,
resulting in a sample size of 358,289 individual tests.

2011 ARCchart
The material contained herein is for the individual use of the purchasing Licensee and may not be distributed to any other person or entity by such Licensee including,
without limitation, to persons within the same corporate or other entity as such Licensee, without the express written permission of Licensor.

European Carrier Mobile Broadband Network Performance

Table 1 - List of countries and cities covered in this research

Country

City

Country

City

Austria

Vienna

Latvia

Riga

Belgium

Brussels

Lithuania

Vilnius

Bulgaria

Sofia

Netherlands

Amsterdam

Croatia

Zagreb

Norway

Oslo

Czech Republic

Prague

Poland

Warsaw

Denmark

Copenhagen

Portugal

Lisbon

Estonia

Tallinn

Romania

Bucharest

Finland

Helsinki

Serbia

Belgrade

France

Paris

Slovakia

Bratislava

Germany

Munich

Spain

Madrid

Greece

Athens

Sweden

Stockholm

Hungary

Budapest

Switzerland

Zurich

Ireland

Dublin

Turkey

Istanbul

Italy

Rome

UK

London

A.2 | Limitations of the App

Owing to restrictions of the iOS and Android development platforms, the App is
limited in a number of ways:

| Technology Profiling
The Limitation
The App is network agnostic and functions identically over cellular or Wi-Fi
connections. However, while the App is able to differentiate between a cellular
and a Wi-Fi connection, it is unable to distinguish between the various types of
cellular networks which the handset might be connected. In other words, when
the performance test is run, the App is unable to see which technology standard
the network is leveraging, be it GPRS, 1xRTT, EDGE, EV-DO, HSPA or any other
cellular technology.
The Solution
This limitation of the App does not affect this research since we are interested in
the overall performance of each carriers network, regardless of the underlying
cellular technology used. This allows us to make valid assessments of a carriers
network and comparisons between carriers.

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The material contained herein is for the individual use of the purchasing Licensee and may not be distributed to any other person or entity by such Licensee including,
without limitation, to persons within the same corporate or other entity as such Licensee, without the express written permission of Licensor.

European Carrier Mobile Broadband Network Performance

| Carrier Identification
The Limitation
The App is not able to identify the carrier over whose network the test was run.
Solution
To determine the carriers identity, the IP address for each test is matched against
a database of known carrier IP address allocations. This information, along with
the country location (determined from the GPS coordinates) allows us to readily
identify the carrier for about 90% of the readings. For the remaining readings
where the ID information is unclear or cryptic, many carriers can be identified
through a process of elimination1. Any data that cannot be linked to a specific
carrier is ignored.
Recent updates to iOS now allow for carrier information to be accessed by
applications and the updated version of the App for both Apple and Android
devices will be able to determine the carrier identity directly from the platform.

| Network Reliability
The Limitation
In this study we use the term network reliability to refer to the combination of
the following factors:
1. A networks ability to consistently provide a data connection to a user
terminal. An unreliable network will, on occasions, fail to establish a data
connection, making Internet access impossible.
2. A networks ability to maintain a data connection for an extended period.
An unreliable network will, on occasions, drop the data connection
midway through an application, taking down Internet access.
3. A networks ability to consistently provide a data connection with a
continuous throughput. An unreliable network will, on occasions,
experience periods of delays in between bursts of throughput, dragging
out the download/upload process. On such occasions, users may
terminate the test prematurely in frustration.
These three issues which cause network unreliability have one thing in common
none can be recorded by the App since a test cannot be conducted when no data
connection is present, or when the data connection is lost, or if the test itself is
terminated prematurely.

If two of the three carriers in a national market have been identified from their IP address then the remaining
data for that country is likely to be for the third carrier.

2011 ARCchart
The material contained herein is for the individual use of the purchasing Licensee and may not be distributed to any other person or entity by such Licensee including,
without limitation, to persons within the same corporate or other entity as such Licensee, without the express written permission of Licensor.

European Carrier Mobile Broadband Network Performance

Owing to this limitation, it is possible that a network may show good performance
yet be unreliable and the results presented in this study should be viewed with
that limitation in mind.

| Handset Performance Variation

The Limitation
Two components are involved when testing the performance of a data network
the network itself and the end terminal on which the test is conducted. The
nature of the methodology employed in this study gives rise to two challenges
regarding the testing terminals i.e. the mobile phone:
A range of iPhone and Android devices were used to conduct the performance
tests used in this research and each of these smartphones support various 3G
radio technologies which determine the data throughput each can handle. This
inconsistency in hardware means that, to some extent, a networks performance
will be dependent on the types of devices used to conduct the test, making
accurate comparisons between different networks unreliable.
It is also important that the terminal is capable of handling a greater throughput
than the network itself is able to deliver, if not the terminal acts as a bottleneck
and the test results do not reflect the networks maximum capacity. For example,
the iPhone 3G and 3GS can only handle maximum upload speeds of 384 Kbps,
whereas the iPhone 4 supports HSUPA2 and can handle up to 5.76 Mbps in the
uplink. If used to test a network which can deliver uplink speeds of 1,000 Kbps (for
example), the iPhone 3G and 3GS will report an inaccurately low result.
The Solution
To address the challenges of using a mix of terminals we have used only results
from iPhone devices to calculate the key network performance metrics for each
carrier i.e. the average download, upload and latency. Android test results are
not used for these calculations.

Table 2 - HSDPA and HSUPA support by the four iPhone models

Release
Date

HSDPA

HSUPA

(Mbps)

(Mbps)

iPhone 2G

2007

n/a

n/a

iPhone 3G

2008

3.6

n/a

iPhone 3GS

2009

7.2

n/a

iPhone 4G

2010

7.2

5.76

High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) is a 3G mobile telephony protocol in the HSPA family which specifies
uplink speed.

2011 ARCchart
The material contained herein is for the individual use of the purchasing Licensee and may not be distributed to any other person or entity by such Licensee including,
without limitation, to persons within the same corporate or other entity as such Licensee, without the express written permission of Licensor.

European Carrier Mobile Broadband Network Performance

Focusing only on iPhone results provides greater terminal consistency, although,

as shown in Table 2, some hardware variation still exists: the first iPhone which
launched in 2007 did not support 3G; the iPhone 3G supports a maximum
download speed of 3.6 Mbps; and the iPhone 3G and 3GS support maximum
uploads of 384 Kbps. However, regardless of these variations between models, we
feel the iPhone test results can be used to accurately reflect the performance of a
carriers network for the following reasons:

The first iPhone does not support 3G but this model was launched in 2007
and it is likely that the penetration of this handset, particularly in
developed European markets, is small.
The 3.6 Mbps download threshold of the iPhone 3G is mitigated by the
fact that only 5% of all download tests conducted on iPhones were
greater than this speed.
The 384 Kbps upload limit of the iPhone 3G and 3GS is more of an issue.
The iPhone 4, which supports substantially greater upload speeds, was
only on the market for approximately one month before the Q3 2010 test
period, but we nonetheless estimate that about 23% of iPhone readings
were generated from the iPhone 4 model. Consequently, this has the
potential to skew the upload averages higher for carriers which have a
disproportionally greater number of iPhone 4 handsets on their network.
Therefore, when comparing the performance of different networks, we
focus predominantly on download averages.

Although carrier performance metrics are based solely on iPhone results, the
readings collected from Android devices are used to measure of the level of
Android smartphone market share controlled by individual carriers.

| Handsets versus Dongles and Connected Devices

This report examines the data performance a cellular network can deliver to a
mobile phone - specifically, iPhone devices. However, carriers are also leveraging
dongles and connected devices tablets, e-books, netbooks and laptops - to
boost the number of revenue-generating products on their mobile broadband
networks.
Because test readings collected in this research were generated from
smartphones, there may be concern that the network performance results are not
reflective of how other connected devices would perform because these are
typically more powerful than smartphones. While it is true that devices like
netbooks and laptops normally have more powerful processors and greater
memory than smartphones, we do not believe that the data throughput
supported by todays mobile broadband networks (maxing at around 7 Mbps) is
sufficient to overburden a typical smartphone. Running the App on the iPhone 3G,

2011 ARCchart
The material contained herein is for the individual use of the purchasing Licensee and may not be distributed to any other person or entity by such Licensee including,
without limitation, to persons within the same corporate or other entity as such Licensee, without the express written permission of Licensor.

European Carrier Mobile Broadband Network Performance

3GS and 4 shows that these devices are comfortable reporting throughput speeds
in excess of 10 Mbps when connected to a Wi-Fi network.
We are confident that the results are representative for all categories of products
connected to the mobile broadband networks examined. Moreover, the results
are valid for making comparisons between different countries and carriers.

A.3 | The Results

These results presented throughout this report are achieved by simply averaging
all the test readings collected for the relevant country or carrier.

A.4 | Availability of the Raw Data

An Excel sheet of the test readings can be made available in portions or its
entirety at additional cost for others to conduct their own independent analysis.
Please contact ARCchart for more information.

2011 ARCchart
The material contained herein is for the individual use of the purchasing Licensee and may not be distributed to any other person or entity by such Licensee including,
without limitation, to persons within the same corporate or other entity as such Licensee, without the express written permission of Licensor.

ARCchart
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