New study finds evidence that phone signal on trains is terrible

Mobile phones
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New research released today suggests that 1 in 3 mobile internet tasks fail – which won’t come as a huge shock to commuters.

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Global Wireless Solutions did the work, testing phones on the ten most popular commuter routes into London. They tested calls, 3G data and 4G data – and it turns out that different networks are better at different tasks.

First up, here’s the packet data reliability on all of the major networks – in other words: Which network is most likely to successfully load up your Facebook when you request it on the way to work:

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In practice, what this means is all of the different networks will download you stuff at slightly different speeds. Here’s the results for 3G and 4G:

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It turns out that Vodafone is best at handling 3G data – and EE best at 4G. The study also found St Pancras was the worst mainline station (in London, out of those tested) to want to use data at. Surprisingly Three is best at handling calls.

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GWS has also produced this cool map, showing their test results in detail.

James O’Malley
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