A report from comparison website Broadband Genie says average mobile broadband speeds have increased very little in the last 12 months.
The company says Three, Vodafone and Virgin Media all advertise speeds of 'up to' 7.2Mbps, although average speeds are much lower. The highest average speeds came from T-Mobile and Vodafone, averaging around 1.2Mb. O2 and 3 Mobile averaged closer to 1Mb, while Orange had an average of 0.86Mb.
Chris Marling, editor at Broadband Genie, said "It's hard to believe the government or Ofcom hasn't stepped in to bring these 'up to' speeds into line with reality. Action is being taken on fixed-line speed advertising, where lines advertised as 'up to' 8Mb are averaging around 3.5Mb - the situation with mobile broadband is even worse. If the mobile broadband suppliers aren't going to bother to make serious improvements to their 3G networks in terms of average speeds, they should at least bring their advertising in line with reality."