1、 Smartphone cities 2016 Annex Mobile broadband performance in London Research Annex Publication date: June 2016 1 About this document This document outlines the results of Ofcoms research into the performance of the retail networks of the UKs four national mobile network operators: EE, O2, Three and
2、 Vodafone in central London over five days in March 2016. This is a supplementary case study to Ofcoms Smartphone Cities report published in March 2016 1 . The purpose of the testing was to compare the mobile broadband performance on each network on Category 4 and Category 6 (newer) type handsets. T
3、his is because it is possible that the technological updates featured on newer handsets (Category 6 and above), as well as the capability to pick up carrier aggregation technology 2 , can contribute to an enhanced mobile broadband performance experienced by consumers. This report presents results fo
4、r: download speeds, web browsing times, upload speeds, YouTube streaming resolution and network response times. The results presented here are not directly comparable to those in previous reports due to the evolution in our testing methodology 3 . It is important to note that the results presented b
5、elow are a case-study limited to a snapshot of performance in central London over the five days of testing in March 2016 and do not reflect UK-wide performance of each MNO. This report is part of a wider programme of work by Ofcom into mobile quality of service, which includes our interactive covera
6、ge maps. 1http:/stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/market-data-research/other/telecoms-research/broadband- speeds/smartphone-cities/ 2More information on handset technological updates and carrier aggregation technology can be found in on page 2 3More information on how the testing reported here differs from
7、that conducted in previous reports can be found on page 14 Contents Section Page 1 Introduction 1 2 Methodology used for testing 2 3 London case study result 4 4 Testing methodology 14 1 Section 1 2 Introduction In March 2016, Ofcom published its Smartphone Cities report, which detailed the results
8、of testing of mobile broadband and voice performance in five UK cities. This document is published as a supplementary annex to this report and details the results derived from testing which was conducted in London over five days in March 2016. These tests measured the mobile broadband performance on
9、 each network of the UKs four national mobile network operators (“MNOs”): EE, O2, Three and Vodafone on Category 4 (“Cat-4”) and Category 6 handsets (“Cat-6”) 4 . The main reason for this testing on Cat-4 and Cat-6 handsets was to understand more about the potential performance benefits available to
10、 consumers who upgrade to the latest devices and on each network. Newer handsets contain technological upgrades and advances that can contribute to an improved broadband performance. Newer handsets (Cat-6 and above) are able to make use of one of the key developments in mobile networks recently; the
11、 deployment of carrier aggregation (“CA”) technology. CA technology can be utilised to enhance the mobile broadband performance experienced by consumers (more information on how CA technology works can be found on page 2). The Cat-6 device which we used for our test is able to make use of CA technol
12、ogy, while the Cat-4 device is unable to. EE and Vodafone have begun to deploy CA in the UK, with rollout at an early stage, in areas including London, at the time of writing this report. The results presented in this annex are not directly comparable to those in our previous reports, including Smar
13、tphone Cities, due to the evolution in our testing methodology and geographical area tested in (more information can be found in on page 14). It is important to note that the results presented below are a case-study limited to a snapshot of performance in central London 5over the five days of testin
14、g in March 2016 and do not reflect UK-wide performance of each MNO. As with Smartphone Cities, this report focuses on two key metrics relevant to the consumer experience of mobile broadband namely, download speed and web browsing performance before examining performance relating to other internet ac
15、tivities. However, it is important to bear in mind that network performance is only one of the factors that a consumer is likely to take into account when choosing a mobile phone service. 4We used a Samsung Galaxy S5 (model SM-GF00F) and Samsung Galaxy S6 (model SM-G928F) for the purpose of this tes
16、ting and they therefore represent proxies of Category 4 and Category 6 handsets. 5More information on the testing methodology and testing area can be found 14. 2 Section 2 2 Methodology used for testing 2.1 Developments in mobile networks One of the key developments in mobile networks recently has b
17、een the deployment of CA technology 6 . CA can be thought of as the combination of two different channels to deliver traffic to the same location (CA-enabled devices). More channels result in an increased capacity to handle heavy traffic so that video and other data uses can continue moving smoothly
18、. CA can be deployed for multiple reasons, from increasing the speed at which data can be served by the network to a CA-enabled smartphone, to allowing networks to cope better with traffic during congested time periods and to provide lower over-the-air latency. As such, having a handset that can ben
19、efit from CA technology should generally enhance the mobile broadband performance experience by consumers. EE and Vodafone have deployed CA technology in the UK, but rollout is currently at an early stage 7 . It is currently available on the downlink (base to mobile) path. To take advantage of CA te
20、chnology, consumers have to have a Cat-6 or above handset and be in coverage of a network that has deployed it. Consumers using EEs network to access CA technology have to have a EE Extra or EE Complete plan, while the ability to access CA on Vodafones network is built into their 4G service offering
21、. The Samsung Galaxy S5 handset we tested with for these results is a Cat-4 device, which means it is unable to make use of this technology while the Samsung Galaxy S6 is a Cat-9 capable device 8 , meaning it can benefit from this deployment. 2.2 Developments with the latest handsets Many of the mos
22、t popular smartphone manufacturers now tend to release new handsets on an annual basis and each new model tends to contain a series of technological upgrades and advances that contribute to the consumers experience of their smartphone, such as sharper screen resolutions, a greater amount of memory a
23、nd advanced camera capabilities. The future use of smart multiple antennas in handsets are likely to increase throughput and also lead to a better experience for consumers because of the increase in transmission robustness. There are also less visible upgrades that will likely benefit the consumers
24、quality of experience with their Smartphone, in particular their mobile broadband performance. Fundamental to any improvement in mobile broadband performance and the general device capability is the availability of greater computational power in the handsets, which underpins the adoption of new tech
25、nology. For our testing, we used Cat-4 and Cat-6 handsets in order to understand the potential performance benefits related to an upgraded smartphone model. The specific handset models we used were the Galaxy S5 (Cat-4 enabled) and the Galaxy S6 (which is a Cat-9 device but is Cat-6 enabled). These
26、handsets were used to represent the broader 6Carrier aggregation is also known as LTE-Advanced and 4G+, and is a 4G technology which allows different bands to be simultaneously used by the base station-device pair to exchange user traffic. 7The most up to date information about CA deployment by EE c
27、an be found in their coverage checker: http:/ee.co.uk/why-ee/network/4gplus. Please note EE refer to CA as 4G+ 8While the Samsung Galaxy S6 is a Cat-9 device, it operates as a Cat-6 in the UK, so it is referred to as Cat-6 throughout this annex 3 performance that can be experienced through handsets
28、in each of the categories. Figure 1 shows a sample list of selected smartphones which are both CA-enabled and will contain the technological upgrades and advances as detailed here (i.e. these handsets are all Cat-6 or above). Figure 1: Cat-6 and above smartphones examples 2.3 Measuring performance B
29、oth the speed of mobile broadband services and their consistency are important as measures of performance. While consumers can feel frustration with slow download speeds and long waits for web pages to load, connection failures and failed calls are also a source of irritation. An average speed metri
30、c will indicate how fast a service is on average, but it does not reveal how frequently that service fails. In order to gauge the consistency of a mobile networks performance, it is necessary to look at the distribution of results. It should also be noted handset choice is only one of the factors th
31、at consumers should take into account when making decisions about their smartphone. Price, quality of customer service, coverage, contract terms and network performance are also relevant and will play a part in consumers quality of experience. The rest of this annex will detail the results of each o
32、f the tests that we conducted in order to show the performance benefits related to upgraded handsets. Manufacturer Handset Apple iPhone6S, iPhone 6S Plus Blackberry Passport, Priv HTC HTC 10, One (M9, A9) Huawei Mate 8, Ascend Mate 7, E5786, Honor 6 LG G4, G5, LG G Flex 2, Nexus 5X Motorola Moto X S
33、tyle Nokia Lumia 950 Samsung Galaxy S6 Sony Xperia X, Xperia Z3+/4, Xperia Z5 4 Section 3 3 London case study results It is important to note that the results presented below are a case-study limited to a snapshot of performance in central London over the five days of testing in March 2016 and do no
34、t reflect UK-wide performance of each MNO. The results were gathered where CA technology is available on certain tariffs across EE and Vodafone. Consumers using EEs network to access CA technology have to have a EE Extra or EE Complete plan, while the ability to access CA on Vodafones network is bui
35、lt into their 4G service offering. Deployment of CA technology is still at an early stage across the UK, meaning the results below are not reflective of performance across the UK as a whole. 3.2 Download speed Download speed refers to the speed at which information is transferred from the internet t
36、o a device. In effect, it determines how quickly a file can be downloaded from a remote source to a smartphone. Typically, this involves downloading a file from a website e.g. music, films, pictures, applications and e-books. Overall, for all download tests carried out, there was no significant diff
37、erence between Cat-4 and Cat-6 handsets. EE was the only operator which experienced a significant increase for download tests carried out on their network on Cat-4 compared to Cat-6 handsets. Figure 2: Average 4G download speed Source: Ofcom mobile broadband measurements, fieldwork in London in Marc
38、h 2016. Note: Average (mean) of all tests gathered with 4G as the best bearer. Significance testing shows any difference between Cat-4 and Cat-6 and is indicated by arrows. Any differences between operators are not necessarily significantly different. For download speed, we also considered the propo
39、rtion of tests that produced a speed greater than 2Mbit/s in addition to the overall averages; as such speeds are likely to be sufficient to support high-capacity video services. Looking at distribution gives a better idea of consistency of performance and how the networks respond under stressed conditions. 15.6 24.3 7.3 19.1 11.8 17.2 31.9 6.5 19.9 10.2 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 All EE O2 Vodafone Three Cat-4 Cat-6 Mbit/s 5 Across all tests, there was no significant d
