Thinkbroadband urges clarity on mobile speeds

Mobile broadband users should be given clearer information about the speeds they are likely to get and the factors that can affect their services, said Thinkbroadband.

The independent broadband advice and analysis site said this was particularly important when the customer is signing up for a long contract. Research it carried out found that three-quarters of all mobile broadband users were dissatisfied with the service and speeds they were getting. It also found that six in 10 mobile broadband users felt that the coverage was poor.

Mobile broadband is supplied by mobile phone network operators such as T-Mobile, 3, O2, Orange and Vodafone.

Sebastien Lahtinen, co-founder of Thinkbroadband told Computeractive that people needed to think carefully before they replaced a fixed-line broadband service with a mobile connection.

“People are being told they can have up to 7Mbits/sec but it is not quite the same as a fixed-line service. Even if mobile coverage in an area is good, factors such the number of people in the area who are using the service can limit speeds.

"These services are fine if you are using services such as Facebook or email, but users can struggle if they want to do more intensive browsing such as iPlayer or Youtube,” he said.

Thinkbroadband has set up a mobile broadband comparison feature on its website, which makes it easier to narrow down the list of packages.

"We've implemented one-click filtering that allows you to set the parameters such as contract lengths and hardware options without answering a long list of questions and without losing visibility over the full range of packages," he said.

He went on to say that if this service proves popular with users, Thinkbroadband would consider rolling out a similar system for ADSL and cable broadband packages although he acknowledged other parameters may need to be used.

He also said the site welcomed suggestions which can be emailed to team@thinkbroadband.com.