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News - Manny Pham
September 25, 2018
O2 customers in six cities saw speeds up to 26.9Mbps, the national average for O2 customers is 14.7Mbps
O2’s 4G download speeds saw a 80 per cent boost after spending £500m acquiring new spectrum in April.
This is according to mobile data firm Tutela testing O2’s 2.3GHz spectrum in August taking more than 10 billion network measurements including 630 thousand mobile speed tests, across all four operators.
O2 4G signal hit a top speed of 26.9Mbps compared to its overall average of 14.7Mbps. The results show O2 has the potential for the best national average 4G speed if rolled out across the UK.
However only customers in six cities can experience the speeds, they are: London, Oxford, Nottingham, Leeds, Leicester and Coventry.
EE’s average national 4G speed is 23.84Mbps, Vodafone’s is 20.26Mbps, O2’s at 14.7Mbps, and in fourth is Three with 9.83Mbps.
Customers under O2 MVNO such as: giffgaff, Tesco Mobile, Sky Mobile and Lycamobile also saw speed boosts and more reliable connections.
O2 purchased 40MHz of the 2.3GHz band for £205.8m, £500m in total including 5G spectrum.
Tutela vice president Tom Luke said: “We have identified 650 different O2 cell tower sites which have activated this spectrum (with over 500 in London), which is an impressive rollout considering the new spectrum was purchased only in April this year.”
An O2 spokesperson said: “Since our success in the spectrum auction earlier this year, we’ve worked hard to start using the newly acquired spectrum as quickly and effectively as possible for our customers across the UK.”
