London’s firms fume over poor mobile service
Coventry, Manchester and Birmingham are beating the capital for mobile network performance, with faster data speeds and fewer dropped calls, leaving London trailing in fifth place according to new research published today.
The data, from leading mobile analytics firm RootMetrics, will disappoint businesses that rely on robust mobile networks in London to power commerce and connectivity across the capital.
“These results are concerning and serve as a wake-up call for the government. How can London remain a globally competitive city if businessmen and women do not have access to reliable mobile connectivity?” London Chamber of Commerce’s director of policy and public affairs Sean McKee told City A.M., describing the capital’s poor performance as “intolerable”.
For mobile call quality London fared even worse, slipping to a distant 14th place in the first half of 2014, far behind Liverpool which came top across all three categories of data, calls and texts.
“London is one of the busiest, densest cities in the world and one of the hardest to provide a great network in – but it deserves to be a world leader,” the technology chief of Britain’s largest mobile network, EE, Fotis Karonis, told City A.M.
“We’re the Number One network in the capital, and later this year we’ll switch on our 300Mbps LTE-Advanced network to take 4G to the next level and give Londoners a mobile network that’s the equal of Seoul, Tokyo, and Hong Kong.”