Tapping into the increasing consumer mindset to share information, as well as the possibilities brought about by smartphones and Google’s Android operating system, United Kingdom-based startup OpenSignal released statistics from its smartphone app showing the growing breadth and depth of LTE networks around the world.
Using information gleaned from its Android application across more than three million smartphones, OpenSignal claims that LTE networks are now available in 62 countries around the globe. That data also showed the vast disparity in speeds consumers are receiving from such networks.
(Listen to OpenSignal co-founder Sam Westwood explain the company’s business model, details on its latest report and challenges the company has tackled in protecting consumer privacy with its crowdsource application.)
OpenSignal’s data showed that Swedish LTE operators provided the fastest speeds to consumers, with average download throughput of 22.1 megabits per second. Hong Kong was No. 2 in speeds with an average download throughput of 19.6 Mbps, followed closely by Denmark with 19.1 Mbps. Denmark was home to the fastest single operator, with 3 in that country posting average download speeds of 25.1 Mbps.
Of the nine countries compared, the United States came in at No. 8 with average download speeds of 9.6 Mbps. Of the domestic operators providing LTE services, AT&T Mobility posted the fastest speeds with average download throughput of 13 Mbps. Verizon Wireless was No. 2 at 10 Mbps, followed by Sprint Nextel at 7.7 Mbps and MetroPCS at 1.2 Mbps. Both Sprint Nextel and MetroPCS have been hampered somewhat in their LTE deployments by a lack of spectrum depth, which seemed to show through in the OpenSignal findings.
As for speeds across multiple wireless broadband technologies, LTE unsurprisingly came out on top. The 10.4 Mbps average download speeds of LTE networks around the world was more than three-times faster than the 3.4 Mbps posted by HSPA+ networks; nearly seven-times faster than those posted by traditional 3G technologies; and even managed to outrace the 3.2 Mbps posted by Wi-Fi services.
“Even though LTE is not ‘true 4G’ we still record it at around seven times faster on average than 3G,” OpenSignal noted. “When comparing the speed of LTE to Wi-Fi it is important to remember that the 3.2 Mbps figure is a global average and therefore contains within it a vast spread of infrastructures and technologies.”
“What is clear is that LTE represents a significant step forward in telecommunications technology,” OpenSignal concluded. “Its dramatic improvement in speed and latency from 3G shows that it has the potential to be as transformative an advancement as the evolution from 2G to 3G. This is especially true in countries that do not have established fixed line internet infrastructure, meaning that broadband internet can be made widely available through cellular connections.”
OpenSignal’s application is currently limited to the Android platform, not a bad choice considering the proliferation of that OS around the world. Company co-founder Sam Westwood did note that the company was set to add support for Apple’s iOS in the coming months to further its source of information.
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