Across the U.K. overall download speeds are on the rise, with year-on-year (YoY) increases across most regions. However, 5G download speeds have fallen in nine out of 12 regions. Time connected to 4G/5G has risen across all regions aside from Northern Ireland, while our 5G users in seven regions have seen significant increases in the proportion of time they spend connected to 5G (5G Availability). Our users on 3 have seen an impressive increase in Time on 4G/5G — the operator has gone from being at the back of the pack to vying with Vodafone for second place.
Our users in 10 out of 12 of the U.K.’s regions have seen a statistically significant increase in their Download Speed Experience in the last year comparing the second quarter of 2022 with the same quarter in 2023. The exceptions to this trend in users’ overall average download speeds are Northern Ireland and the South West. The largest percentage improvement was in the North East, with a rise of 23.4% in users’ speeds, followed by Wales, London and the East Midlands with increases of 15.3, 9.7% and 9.2%, respectively.
However, when we look at the average 5G download speeds seen by our users, there are statistically significant declines in nine out of 12 regions. Of these, three regions see declines of more than 20% — Northern Ireland (21.6%), East Midlands (21%) and the South East (20.7%) — while Yorkshire and Humber is not far behind with a fall in speeds of 17.8%.
Across all regions apart from Northern Ireland, our users observed significant increases in the proportion of time they spent with a 4G or 5G connection (Time on 4G/5G). This means that users are spending more time on mobile technologies that provide faster speeds than 2G or 3G. The most impressive YoY increase is in Wales with a rise of 4.5 percentage points, followed by the North East and Scotland with improvements of 3.8 and 3.7 percentage points, respectively, in users’ connection time.
One initiative that is working to improve UK users’ access to 4G is the Shared Rural Network and 3 announced in August 2023 that it had built its 100th site as part of the plan, with 65 of these sites being located in Scotland.
The amount of time 5G users spend with an active 5G connection is also on the rise. Over the last year our users in London saw the largest increase in 5G Availability with a rise of four percentage points, followed by the East Midlands and Eastern with improvements of 3.2 and three percentage points, respectively. Similarly, Wales saw a rise of two percentage points. However, our users in Scotland did not observe a statistically significant increase in their score.
The increases in 5G Availability help to explain the decline in 5G download speeds. When users spend more time connected to 5G, the amount of traffic on 5G networks usually increases, which can lead to greater congestion if there is not a similar increase in 5G capacity through deployment of additional spectrum or improved site backhaul. In the previous Opensignal analysis, we found that in 2022 users’ 5G download speeds were more consistent across hours of the day than on 4G. However, the same analysis shows that this is no longer the case in 2023, indicating that increased 5G usage is having an impact on the 5G experience.
In addition, 5G deployments in rural areas tend to make use of spectrum in low bands, such as 700MHz, resulting in better propagation and allowing each cell site to serve a wider area. This is at the cost of less capacity and lower speeds than those seen when using mid-band spectrum. Therefore, operators rolling out 5G in rural areas would increase 5G Availability while lowering average 5G download speeds. Our users in the highly rural East Midlands region, saw the second-largest increase in 5G Availability and the second-largest percentage decline in 5G download speeds.
When we look at national trends — we see that a large driver behind the increase in Time on 4G/5G is the improvement seen by our 3 users. In January 2022, 3 users were in last place with a score of 85.2%, but from July 2022 3’s score began ramping quickly, overtaking O2 in August 2022 and tying with Vodafone for second place in August/September 2022. Across Q4 2022 to Q2 2023, 3 has pushed Vodafone into third place, before tying for second place with it in July 2023. Time on 4G/5G is likely to further increase, given British operators’ planned 3G shutdowns. Earlier this year, Vodafone indicated that it would begin switching off its 3G network in June 2023, while 3 is seeking to switch off its 3G network by the end of 2024.
We have seen that in most U.K. regions, overall download speeds have risen, along with the proportion of time our users spend with a 4G or 5G connection. Meanwhile, while 5G download speeds have fallen in nine out of 12 regions, in seven regions 5G Availability has increased significantly.
Our users in Wales and the North East have seen impressive increases in their overall download speeds as well as for Time on 4G/5G. While Londoners are towards the back of the pack for improvement in time on 4G/5G, they have seen the largest increase in 5G Availability and the third highest increase in overall Download Speed Experience. Our 5G users in London spend by far the greatest proportion of time with an active 5G connection.
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