One for the Digital Life category - the BBC has completed its crowd-sourced survey on 3G in the UK.Its Technology Correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones begins:
When we launched our 3G survey last month we could not be sure how much interest there would be. I'm glad to say there was plenty - more than 44,000 people downloaded the Android app on all manner of devices, and data came in from the tip of Cornwall to the Shetland Islands.
The data shows that, overall, people are getting 3G about three quarters of the time, but coverage is nothing like as uniform as the picture painted in the coverage map issued by the mobile operators.
So most of a city will have excellent coverage but there will be certain places even quite near the centre where some if not all the networks are just not providing a data connection.One to note is the special "3G mobile data network crowd-sourcing" map, where you can enter your own postcode to see what 3G coverage was reported in your own area...
Check out the results >>
Comments (1)
The method used by the survey to gather data was seriously flawed. I participated in the survey and noted that while I was at home (where I mostly work) with my phone's data connection via my home wi-fi the app showed that I was on 2g incorrectly implying 3g was unavailable. If I switch my phone to connect via 3g I get almost 100% availability.
I suspect this is one of the reasons that 3g coverage appeared to be worse that operators claim.
Posted by Mike Shaw | August 24, 2011 3:46 PM
Posted on August 24, 2011 15:46