More than 8 in 10 Brits (84%) are happy with their mobile providers’ service quality and performance, the latest Ofcom mobile customer experience report 2018 shows.
Based on the overall consumer experience of more than 5k smartphone users across the UK from September to December 2017 , the study finds that 73% of users in rural areas are satisfied with mobile network performance, when compared to 86% of urban customers who are happy with their mobile operators’service.
4G connections performed better than 3G connections for users. There was more reliability and faster speeds when accessing to 4G networks, irrespective of providers, the report reveals. Over-all, 81% of data use was spent on a 4G network rather on a 3G network.
The average speeds also varied, depending on network, operator and apps. 3G connections were much slower while using any app including Chrome or Whatsapp or YouTube.
4G networks could deliver 2.7Mbit/s and 3.0Mbit/s over wifi and 4G to YouTube users. This speed fell to 1.4Mbps when users connected to 3G networks. Over-all, 3G data connections were around five times as likely to fail as 4G data connections, Ofcom report shows.
During peak periods, 1.5% of 4G data connections failed, while the average failure rate was 7.2% for 3G data connections.
However, during off-peak periods, Chrome users experienced 28% faster speeds, while off-peak speeds increased 34% for YouTube users.
When it comes to over-all voice call performance, less than 1% of voice calls were dropped due to loss of service.
More than 9 in 10 data users accessed mobile internet for web browsing, while three-fourths of customers used their smartphone for voice calls.