The fastest mobile Internet in Russia is provided to its subscribers by MTS, the leader in Moscow - Tele2, according to experts from the Radio Frequency Center, subordinate to Roskomnadzor. Other operators do not agree with these data
Photo: Vladislav Shatilo / RBC
MTS is the leader among operators in terms of average mobile Internet speed in Russia. This is the conclusion reached by the experts of the Radio Frequency Center of the Central Federal District, subordinate to Roskomnadzor, said at a conference in Moscow on May 26, Deputy General Director of the center Dmitry Mitrofanov. The study was conducted according to the methodology of Roskomnadzor with measurements in 52 cities: experts recorded the speed of data transfer to the subscriber.
The average speed of mobile Internet at MTS was 6.6 Mbps, in general, it turned out to be lower in the market - 5.4 Mbps. Above the "average Russian" speed of the Internet and MegaFon - 5.6 Mbps. Third place was taken by VimpelCom (Beeline brand), whose network speed was 5.2 Mbps. At Tele2, data is transmitted at an average speed of 4.8 Mbps. The last place was taken by the Crimean operator "K-Telecom" (brand Win Mobile) with an indicator twice lower than the market average - 2 Mbps.
The radio frequency center has been measuring the quality of communication since 2015. It has improved over the year, Mitrofanov says. For example, in Moscow, the average data transfer rate doubled from 3.2 to 6.1 Mbps. This is due to an increase in the number of base stations for signal transmission using LTE (4G) technology, the deputy general director of the center explains. According to Roskomnadzor, over the year the number of LTE base stations in Russia increased by 109%, to 72,000. MTS has the most of them - 27,000. MegaFon has 26,000 such stations, VimpelCom has 11,000, Tele2 has almost 4,000.
The fastest mobile Internet is received by residents of the Central Federal District, and the slowest - by the Far East, Mitrofanov said. In Moscow, experts put Tele2 in first place in terms of data transfer speed, which. It is followed by MTS and VimpelCom. Only MegaFon, which took last place, had a data transfer rate lower than the average for the capital. Mitrofanov did not disclose specific data for each of the operators in the capital.
Representatives of the operating companies differed in their assessments of the study. Only MTS agreed with the conclusions: “The company is the leader both in terms of the number of 4G base stations and the coverage area - our fourth-generation networks,” said Dmitry Solodovnikov, a representative of the operator. At the same time, according to Solodovnikov, in Moscow “it is incorrect to compare the parameters of the MTS network with the network of a newcomer to the rating”: it has many times fewer subscribers, so the load is five to seven times lower than that of the Big Three operators.
It is inconvenient to work with slow Internet, it is impossible to watch an interesting movie, websites take a long time to load, portable 4G modems come to the rescue. In order to make the right choice and not make a mistake when buying a 4G modem for a laptop, we suggest that you familiarize yourself with the rating of the best and fastest devices according to the Mark.guru portal. In the selection of the best models of 2018 for accelerated connection to the network, you can find the best option that suits you in terms of quality and cost.
When buying a 4G modem, pay attention to some features:
- Maximum data rate. In most cases, it is directly dependent on operators and coverage areas.
- What operators does it work with. In many gadgets, it is impossible to switch to another provider; it is better to select universal models that work with any operators.
- What operating systems does it support. Before purchasing, check the compatibility of your computer software with the modem.
- Ability to connect other devices. If the modem performs the functions of a router, through it you can connect not only one laptop, but also other computer equipment.
- Dimensions. The impressive dimensions of some models not only do not look very attractive, but also close the “nests” located nearby. Choose compact modems.
- Connecting an external antenna. For better signal reception, some products provide an additional “jack” for antennas.
- Built-in switch. Such models perfectly catch the network signal, but they are very expensive. For a good connection of several computers at home or in the office, devices with a built-in switch are the best option.
- Manufacturer. Give preference to well-known proven brands that have earned a good reputation in the Russian market.
With the development of technology, a 4G wireless network has appeared, allowing you to quickly download movies of the best quality and instantly open websites. Using an LTE modem helps save traffic and reduce the cost of services provided by operators.
1. Huawei E392
One of the best and fastest 4g laptop modems, has all the necessary parameters. The device does not work with other SIM cards, except for Megafon. The modem can function as a USB reader - you can install MicroSD cards.
The package is also equipped with an external antenna.
Characteristic:
- placement - external;
- interface - USB;
- reception speed - 100 Mbps;
- weight - 50 g;
- operating systems – Windows Vista/Mac OS X/Red Flag/OpenSUSE/Ubuntu/Windows 7/Win XP.
Advantages:
- universality;
- many ranges;
- high speed connection.
Flaws:
- large dimensions;
- design.
Average price: 3750 rubles.
Prices for Huawei E392:
2. Huawei E8372
Wi-FI router functions, the ability to connect external antennas, fast connection - the device is one of the best and fastest 4g modems for a laptop. For accelerated 4g Internet, you can use an external antenna. Can switch to other standard networks manually.
The device has the ability to distribute a signal at 15 meters to ten computer devices at once.
Characteristics:
- weight - 40 g;
- size - 30 * 14 * 94 mm;
- interface –USB;
- 4g transfer rate - up to 100 Mbps;
- 3g transfer rate - up to 43.3 Mbps.
Advantages:
- high speed connection.
- the ability to use as a router;
- connection of an external antenna;
- You can use a SIM card of any operator.
Disadvantages: not found.
Average price: 3540 rubles.
Prices for Huawei E8372:
3. Huawei E3372
One of the best modems with high connection speed. All operators are available for it, including foreign ones, it is possible to work with antennas. Suitable for all 3G, 4G standards.
In places with poor 3G coverage, 4G device reduces laptop battery life, as a weak signal consumes more power.
Characteristic:
- interface - USB;
- reception speed - up to 100 Mbps;
- transmission speed - up to 50 Mbps;
- size - 91 * 29 * 11 mm;
- weight - 31 g;
- operating systems - Windows XP/Vista, Windows7/8, Linux, Win Blue, MAC;
- antennas - built-in for LTE / 3G / 2G + 2 CRC9 connectors.
Advantages:
- the ability to use a SIM card of any operator;
- support for microSD cards;
- connector for an external antenna;
- high-speed connection;
- compactness.
Weaknesses: not found.
Average price: 2550 rubles.
Prices for Huawei E3372:
Available for all standard networks, it is the best option for connecting to the Internet. There is nothing complicated in the installation, it is enough to connect it to computer equipment using USB and the system will start the update itself.
The device is equipped with a built-in antenna and connectors for external antennas.
Description:
- size - 92 * 34 * 14 mm;
- weight - 35 g;
- reception speed - 150 Mbps;
- transmission speed - 50 Mbps;
- operating systems - Red Flag 7.0, OC Windows XP SP2/SP3, Windows 7, Windows Vista SP1/SP2, Ubuntu 11.10/10.10/10.4, Mandriva 2010.2, Debian 6.0/5.0, OpenSUSE 11.4/11.3, Mac OS X 10.5, 10.6, 10.7.
Advantages:
- the presence of a swivel mechanism;
- the presence of 2 connectors for the antenna;
- support for microSD cards;
- work with Russian operators;
- works in many ranges.
Flaws:
- insufficient network indication;
- gets very hot.
Average price: 2900 rubles.
Prices :
This laptop modem works in all frequency bands of 2G, 4G Internet. Can be used as a router. It is a compact device, simple and convenient to operate. In the absence of 4G, it automatically switches to other available networks.
The ZTE MF823 consumes much less power than some other 4G models.
Description:
- dimensions - 91 * 34 * 13 mm;
- weight - 45 g;
- reception speed - 100 Mbps;
- interface - USB;
- operating systems - Windows Vista/ Windows 8/ Mac OS X/ Linux/ Windows 7/ Win XP.
Advantages:
- quickly connects to the network;
- slot for microSD memory cards;
- compactness;
- for a higher speed connection, it is possible to use external antennas.
Disadvantages: not found.
Average price: 2550 rubles.
Prices :
One of the best and fastest 4g laptop modems is Huawei E3272. It only requires a USB connector for installation. For a faster network connection, 2 antenna connectors are provided.
In the reviews, buyers write that this model does not work with all routers.
Characteristic:
- size - 93 * 30 * 13 mm;
- weight - 35 g;
- placement - external;
- interface - USB;
- maximum memory card size - 32 GB;
- supports standards - 2g, 3g, LTE;
- operating systems - Vista / Win XP / 7 / 8 / Mac OS X / Linux.
Advantages:
- the ability to use SIM cards of any Russian operators;
- connector for Micro SD card;
- quickly connects to the network;
- relatively little heat.
Flaws:
- does not work with some routers;
- no swivel mechanism.
Average price: 2800 rubles.
Prices :
7.Yota LU156
This product can be purchased at a very attractive price. Its cost is much less than other predecessors. The available communication standards are 3GPP E-ULTRA Rel 8 (LTE).
With the Yota LU156 model, it is possible to connect to a router or other computer equipment that supports CDC.
Characteristic:
- dimensions - 78 * 28 * 12 mm;
- weight - 20 g;
- placement - external;
- interface - USB;
- transmission speed - up to 100 Mbps;
- system requirements - Windows, Mac OS, Linux.
Advantages:
- low price;
- convenient functionality;
- compactness.
Of the negative points, the low connection speed is noted.
Average price: 1900 rubles.
Prices for Yota LU156:
LTE modem with integrated switch (ZyXEL LTE6100)
LTE models with a built-in switch can combine several computer devices into one network. The high-quality, multifunctional device ZyXEL LTE6100 completes the rating of 4g modems. The complete set of the model contains an outdoor unit suitable for all weather conditions, and an indoor unit located indoors.
Connecting to the network with this model becomes much better, buyers note that they have not identified any restrictions in receiving signals when using a modem.
Characteristic:
- dimensions - 188 * 41 * 131 mm;
- weight - 1355 g;
- data transfer rate in the direct channel - up to 100 Mbps;
- data transfer rate in the reverse channel - up to 50 Mbps;
- built-in antenna - MIMO 13 dBi in the outdoor unit;
- frequency ranges - 2.500 - 2.690 GHz.
Advantages:
- quickly connects to the network;
- ease of installation;
- reliability and quality.
Disadvantages: high cost.
Average price: 23740 rubles.
Prices :
Conclusion
Based on the rating according to the Mark.guru portal, you can find the best modem that meets all the requirements and has an accelerated network connection. In this selection of products, all devices have 4G coverage and allow data transfer at high speed.
I will not reveal a big secret if I say that with the advent of fourth-generation networks, the mobile Internet has made a big leap, even to some extent catching up with the home Internet. Personally, I noticed that I no longer try to reach public Wi-Fi when I have a 4G icon on my phone. LTE allows you to watch multimedia content in maximum quality and communicate with friends and family through video calls without image pixelation. Of course, this type of connection is not yet so large-scale, but at least it comes to large cities quite actively. In Moscow, this service is provided by four providers, and we decided to conduct a small test, collecting a bit of statistics.
For testing, we needed four identical smartphones with LTE support. And since Huawei is one of the locomotives for the development of LTE, the choice fell on the Huawei Ascend G6 model (review). This device perfectly suits the role of an average solution with LTE support and good speed. Personally, I really liked the device as an inexpensive and high-quality solution. The latest firmware was installed on all devices.
Sims of cellular operators MegaFon, MTS, Beeline and Yota participated in testing. The last participant is a newcomer to the cellular services market, but he was one of the first to develop a 4G network. Yes, this is more of a virtual provider owned by MegaFon, but it had its own LTE towers. It was the appearance of this guest that became the pretext for conducting a test, the main point of which is whether 4G from MegaFon and Yota are now different things, or whether the merger has already taken place globally. This material cannot be called a full-fledged testing of cellular operators. There are several reasons for this:
1) The test was conducted only in terms of data transfer speed, that is, the quality of conversations is not taken into account. 3G performance indicators are also not taken into account.
2) All measurements were made at different times and days, which will be indicated already in the course of all characteristics.
3) A single point was used in the field, and the distribution of networks is a very complex nature. So, turning the corner, you can already get completely different results. Testing was carried out on the fact “here and now”.
4) At the last stage of testing, unfortunately, one of the testing resources fell off, so the data on it is not entirely complete.
However, despite all these “buts”, our experiment provided useful information on synthetic tests and network behavior in various conditions.
So this is how we tested. The cycle is pretty simple. The sequence of actions will help if you yourself want to check the screenshots that we posted separately. To begin with, of course, we determine the position on the map using Google Maps. With this test, we check the number of lost packets, which indicates the instability of the data transfer. To test the outgoing speed, we used the Iperf client by selecting an open server and entering the following command “-c iperf.eltel.net -P 10 -w 100k”. This command makes 10 file uploads, giving overall statistics and speed. To analyze the incoming speed, we decided to simply use the Mail.ru Cloud. Of course, we measured downloading files from fast servers a couple of times, but in general, the main task is to find out a really working option. Without SpeedTest-measurement, it will act as an indicator indicating the state of the network.
After multiple passes, we found that SpeedTest is indeed quite suitable as the main determinant of network transmission quality. Of course, you should not believe in numbers above 60 Mbps per input, but in general, if SpeedTest writes about 30 Mbps, then it is so. With outgoing traffic, the situation is somewhat different. In this case, everything depends on the provider, and Yota stood out in that its performance in SpeedTest and Iperf was very different, indicating that in reality the provider cuts Upload, while the synthetic test shows high numbers. But the other providers, with large "virtual" numbers, showed similar results in the combat mission. Returning to the issue of downloading, in a couple of cases we encountered a situation where the LTE speed indicators were very low, in a couple of places, for the sake of experiment, a comparison was made with 3G. As a result, it turned out that even with a low level of the fourth generation network, it still overtook HSDPA in downloading large files. The comparison of Yota with MegaFon turned out to be interesting. In general, the performance of the networks was very close to each other, however, sometimes severe discrepancies still do not allow us to assert that the same base stations (BS) are used.
Below I will describe each of the 22 points with a few comments. The main indicators will be screenshots from SpeedTest. To summarize, I will enter a 3 point score, where the point will be deducted if the speed value in SpeedTest is less than 10 Mbps, or if the packet loss is more than 5%. In the absence of 4G, the operator at the point will receive 0. You can download the archive with screenshots from SpeedTest from here.
1. The start started from metro station Rechnoy Vokzal on a day off in the evening. At this point, Yota and MegaFon performed very poorly. Both providers had not only speed problems, but also a small packet loss of 1-2%.
2. M. Dynamo, Mail.ru tower. Beeline has relatively low performance, but even with them, there were no problems with uploading HD content to YouTube.
3. M. Sports. Beeline, despite its leadership in SpeedTest, showed a large packet loss of 6%. This and some of the subsequent tests were carried out in the traffic on the TTK (third transport ring), so there is a heavy load on the networks.
4. M. Dubrovka. Yota had a low level, while the rest showed good results.
5. M. Krasnoselskaya. All subjects showed excellent results.
6. Having made a big detour to change the iron horse, we ended up in the city of Khimki on the street. Nakhimov. In this place, Yota and MTS performed very poorly, while in the yards it was generally possible to catch an empty zone. However, Beeline again showed a packet loss of 6%.
7. Moscow Ring Road, 80 km. Only Beeline turned out to be an outsider with a low speed, but without packet loss.
8. Dmitrovskoe shosse, 89. Stop for a bite to eat. All participants gave out more than 20 Mbps, and Beeline had a packet loss of 3%.
9. M. Vladikino. In this region, all providers showed a small loss of packets. However, MegaFon and Yota performed worst of all, showing not only poor speed, but also losses of more than 5%. It is quite possible that there is a common BS here.
10. M. VDNH. Yota is experiencing a loss of speed in this area compared to other operators.
11. M. Elektrozavodskaya. All demonstrated high-quality data transmission. In SpeedTest, MTS showed a high response value, but these figures were not confirmed in the terminal.
12. New day, day off again, evening again. MegaFon and Yota were pleased with the connection speed, but Beeline showed itself very poorly, but it’s not as bad as MTS, where we didn’t see an LTE connection at all.
13. M. Youth. MTS showed the least in the test, but still it is above 10 Mbps (the maximum declared 3G speed according to the specifications).
14. M. University. In this area, MegaFon and Yota have seen slight packet losses of less than 5% and low download speeds. But the upload speed, on the contrary, turned out to be high, and here, as before, it is clear that Yota intends to cut the upload to 1 Mbps.
15. M. Varshavskaya. MTS walks on the edge of 10 Mbps. So as a preventive measure, it loses 1 point.
16. M. Cherkizovskaya. Another black hole. This time for both MTS and Beeline. However, MegaFon also loses a point for low speed.
17. New day. This time it is weekday, and here we will test the strength of the center of Moscow. M. Teatralnaya, the test was conducted after the presentation of Huawei Honor 6 (video) (yes, that's such a coincidence). This time, Yota showed a decrease in speed compared to its opponents. MTS also showed a packet loss of 3%.
18. M. Tverskaya. Lots of Internet users, and corporations sitting nearby. All were either below or on the border. MTS and MegaFon distinguished themselves by packet loss at the level of 5%.
19. M. Kitay-gorod. MegaFon turned out to be on the border, Yota was also close, but 11.5 Mbps is still not 3G. MTS and Beeline performed well.
20. M. Tretyakovskaya. In this section, Beeline showed itself the worst, weak numbers in SpeedTest and packet loss as much as 27%. MTS also receives a minus point for its borderline condition.
21. The heat has gone. M. Kyiv, Kyiv railway station, almost rush hour. "Beeline" and MTS coped without problems, but Yota and "MegaFon" slightly folded.
22. End point. Belorussky railway station. 6:00 p.m. rush hour. Only MTS performed poorly, showing low speed and 14% packet loss. The rest did well.
As you can see, in most places, operators show good results. The average speed in Moscow is around 20 Mbps. Of course, due to the heavy load of the metropolis, it is difficult for 4G networks to show all their capabilities. But the maximum speed is not so important for the end user, and the current indicators are enough for comfortable work.
As already mentioned, it was the emergence of Yota as a mobile operator that forced this test to be carried out. Many are interested in the declared unlimited Internet from this operator. But alas, it has limitations. Firstly, the already mentioned upload speed cut, which for many negates the advantages of LTE in the form of fast file downloads. Secondly, when distributing Internet via Wi-Fi, the speed is cut to 1 Mbps (that is, you cannot use a Yota SIM card for comfortable Internet access from other devices). The cost of unlimited traffic is 300 rubles, but you cannot buy it separately without a package of minutes, and now the cost increases to a minimum of 440 rubles per month. The disadvantage is the presence of a separate tariff for tablets (tablets will be perceived as iPads and devices that are not able to make calls and have a large diagonal).
At MegaFon, we connected the Internet S tariff for 350 rubles, which includes 3 GB of traffic - this amount will be beyond the eyes of the average user.
At the time of the start of testing, the Beeline tariff line did not have the Highway tariff, which gives the same 3 GB of traffic for the same 350 rubles, but at the moment, until January, the provider has a “the faster, the freer” service, which does not take into account 4G traffic. It would be nice if they extended this promotion on a permanent basis, competing with Yota. We used the “All for 900” package, the cost of which is 30 rubles per day (5 GB of traffic, a package of calls and SMS are given).
MTS has two options for providing the Internet: the purchase of packages and the BIT service. In our case, BIT would be inconvenient due to the limitation of high-speed daily traffic. The cost of a standard package for 3 GB is the standard 350 rubles. The relatively unlimited "SuperBIT" costs the same amount, but it has a large number of limitations. In fact, it will be of interest to those who are not completely sure of the traffic they consume, giving them the opportunity not to spend more.
The choice of a mobile operator must be approached individually. It is necessary to weigh not only the tariff options and the quality of the services provided, but also personal experience of working with operators, as well as the experience of acquaintances. One way or another, having considered the work of 4G in Moscow, we can say that the operators have done a good job of providing users with affordable and fast mobile Internet. It is difficult to identify any one leader, everyone coped plus or minus the same way. However, qualitative growth is still required, especially in the context of the increasing availability of LTE smartphones. Let's hope that the recession in the economy will not undermine the operators' plans to introduce 4G in new cities and more people will be able to surf the Internet at high speeds.
The site expresses its gratitude to Huawei for providing the Huawei Ascend G6 for testing.
Informing about the state of 4G LTE networks in the world based on the results of the current year.
Compared to last year and even to the beginning of this year, the average world speeds in these networks have increased, and a number of countries in the very near future may overcome the 50 Mbps mark. And , despite the difference in the state of infrastructure in different parts of the world , the speed of 4G LTE in the world is currently higher than the speed of typical broadband networks .
Globally, the average 4G speed today is 17.4 Mbps, with many countries easily breaking the 20 Mbps mark. This is higher than the average for the same period last year, which was 12.6 Mbps. At the same time, the countries with the highest speeds continued to actively increase their average download speeds. However, developing countries infrastructure are still a little behind. In particular, India offers consumers an average 4G speed of just 6.4 Mbps. At the same time, 4G is still much more widespread technology in the world than the aging 3G and 2G technologies.
This is definitely great news for most mobile users, so let's take a look at how 4G LTE is doing in different parts of the world and how the numbers have changed since last year.
Top 5 countries with the fastest speeds
- Singapore, 45.9 Mbps
- South Korea, 45.8 Mbps
- Hungary, 40.6 Mbps
- Romania, 35.6 Mbps
- New Zealand, 34.9 Mbps
Not surprisingly, Singapore and South Korea have managed to maintain their places in the top five since last year, and also surpassed the former leader - New Zealand - demonstrating a significant increase in average speed over the past 12 months. In addition to Romania, another European country that is at the top of the ranking is Hungary, and all five leading countries today offer average speeds of 35 Mbps. At the same time, peak speeds are much higher.
For comparison: USA and UK demonstrated in the current year, smaller, but still noticeable increases in data transfer rates in 4G LTE networks compared to other developed countries. These two countries show speeds of 13 and 21 Mbit / s respectively, which is quite decent, but not so close to the world leaders.
This trend is also typical for most of Western Europe, where Germany, Italy, France, Ireland and Spain show average speeds of 20-30 Mbps. At the same time, the countries of Eastern Europe and the Benelux countries offer faster 4G, which can compete with the best networks in Asia - at least in terms of speed.
Curiously, India is dropping out of the trend of 4G LTE networks accelerating year on year, with average speeds dropping from around 10 Mbps to 6.4 Mbps. India's infrastructure is still evolving and it looks like the growing number of 4G users, even over the past year, is putting a serious strain on national network capacities. In general, over the past year, India has significantly increased the coverage of its territory with a 4G LTE signal - from 50% in 2015 to 72% in 2016.
Top 5 countries with the best coverage
- South Korea , 95 .7 %
- Japan, 92 .0 %
- Lithuania, 84 .7 %
- Hong Kong, 84 .5 %
- Netherlands, 84 .1 %
The top five countries with the best coverage also look very similar to last year. South Korea is still ahead of the curve, as is Japan, but some of the Eastern European countries are on their heels, rivaling Asia in both speed and coverage. South Korea still boasts that 4G connections are almost as widespread like 3G and 2G, which many other countries are still counting on as a way to fill gaps in LTE coverage.
While the US offers slower connectivity than the rest of the world, the country can easily compete with others in terms of affordability due to early investment in widespread network deployment. This is no small achievement considering the country's size compared to smaller countries offering similar coverage.
Unfortunately, the UK remains one of the least developed countries in terms of 4G penetration. However, in neighboring France and Germany the situation is not much better - here 4G connection is available in 49 and 57 percent of cases, respectively. And while Western Europe has decent speeds, it's heavily dependent on older 3G connections in many places.
New Zealand - a country in the top five in terms of speed, has a disappointing coverage - at the level of 57.9%; the same goes for Romania and Iceland. This proves once again that speed data by itself is not an indicator of availability or reliability, especially in countries with difficult geographical conditions.
India currently overtakes the UK and much of Europe in terms of 4G availability, despite the price of low speed coverage. It is estimated that by the end of the year, Indian 4G users will have reliable coverage in 80% of cases. The next step will be to increase the capacities, which will guarantee that custom speeds will catch up with most of the world.
Wireless vs Broadband
Another interesting takeaway from the OpenSignal report is that in many countries the 4G LTE infrastructure is now quite usable in place of broadband networks, bypassing all barriers and often offering faster speeds than wired connections. Many countries today can offer wireless connections at speeds in excess of 30Mbps, which are faster than regional broadband networks, and coverage that outperforms fiber-optic networks in some regions.
Both average broadband and average 4G network speeds have increased by about 5Mbps globally over the past year, so 4G is moving ahead, thanks in large part to more investment in wireless than wired.
The hotspot for 4G speeds is between 20-25Mbps, making wireless in most countries faster than broadband at an average speed of 10.8Mbps. Global averages for 4G speeds are holding back large countries such as the US where speeds are slower than typical. Even so, the world average speed of 17.4 Mbps exceeds the speed of a standard broadband network.
After expected in the next few years, the speed and capacity of wireless networks will begin to grow at an even faster pace. Of course, it will take time to launch 5G, and many countries today are just launching 4G and increasing its availability. Or , for example , like Ukraine , which is just planning the process of introducing 4G . Launch date - . However, in the end, we will come to the point where aging wired broadband connections will be completely replaced high-speed wireless 5G networks.
We conducted a large-scale study of the speed of 4G Internet provided by the Big Three operators in Russian cities. According to its results, Megafon became the absolute leader, Beeline got the second place, and the worst position is occupied by MTS. The study took place in 15 largest cities in Russia, where operators provide access to fourth generation networks. A special car traveled around the settlements, measuring the connection speed at different points. In each city, the length of the routes of a car equipped with measuring systems ranged from 230 to 980 km, which allows us to speak of a significant and high-quality sample.
As a result, MegaFon showed the best results in 8 out of 15 cities. In four places, LTE from Beeline turned out to be the fastest, and MTS demonstrated the best speeds only in three million cities. The average speed in LTE networks throughout the country is 11 Mbps. However, the situation may change in the near future, as operators are actively building fourth-generation networks, and in the last quarter alone they launched a little less than six thousand new base stations in Russia. As of December 1, 2014, LTE networks were deployed by the Big Three operators in 77 licensed regions, while there is minimal competition (no more than 1 operator) in 13 regions, and fourth-generation networks are completely absent only in four regions: Kamchatka Krai, Magadan, Norilsk, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug.
It is not difficult to guess that the operators could not leave this study without attention. Representatives of MegaFon reacted positively to the information that their company is the leader in the Russian mobile Internet market, but added that the tests conducted by Telecom Daily do not always coincide with their own measurements.
In most regions of the country, we offer the fastest internet access. This is directly related to the fact that our frequency spectrum is in the 2.6GHz range. 4 times wider than other operators. A MegaFon client will always have a higher mobile Internet speed than clients of other companies. Our LTE network was the first in Russia. MegaFon's network already has 5 million LTE devices. The network is developing under a rapidly growing load, with almost 40% of traffic generated by LTE clients. Even so, MegaFon remains the leader in speeds in most regions. A consequence of the wide resource is the ability to launch new communication standards that require carrier aggregation. In particular, in February we launched the LTE-A network (cat 6) in Moscow, and in September - in St. Petersburg. Next year, such a network will appear in other million-plus cities of the country. Speed of 300Mbps. is achievable with the addition of carriers (X20MHz) and no other operator in Russia is yet able to repeat this due to technical limitations.
Representatives of MTS, an outsider in the Telecom Daily rating, believe that measuring speed exclusively on LTE networks is incorrect. The thing is that users often find themselves in 3G coverage, so to get reliable results, you also need to take speed indicators in third-generation networks and average the results. If you look at the situation with the mobile Internet in this vein, you should pay attention to the results of the Ookla study, which measured the average connection speed in 2G, 3G and 4G networks. According to the results of this testing, MTS turned out to be the operator with the fastest mobile Internet. The average national connection speed for MTS was 7.1 Mbps, for Megafon - 6.2 Mbps, and for Beeline - only 5.6 Mbps.
As a result, it turns out that when choosing an operator, users have to choose from two diametrically opposed research results. On the one hand, MegaFon has the fastest 4G networks, on the other hand, MTS is the leader in terms of average mobile Internet speed. If we talk about million-plus cities in the regions, it is most correct to pay attention to the network coverage area when choosing an operator. This indicator will be more important than the difference in the average connection speed of 1-2 Mbps according to the results of the Ookla study.
In Moscow, the situation is not so clear cut. Given the huge number of smartphones with 3G support and the high load on base stations, if you have a connection to 3G networks, the speed is often unsatisfactory. At the same time, the coverage area of the capital by 4G networks tends to be maximum for each operator. It turns out that it is more correct for Muscovites to focus on the results of the Telecom Daily study and choose an operator based on the speed of an LTE connection. However, the alignment of forces may change in the foreseeable future. With the growing popularity and availability of 4G-enabled smartphones, connection speeds are constantly declining. Compared to the first quarter of 2014, it has already fallen by 20-25%. As a result, with the same technical situation, users of fourth-generation networks will soon face the same problem as when working on 3G - too slow Internet. It remains to be hoped that the equipment will improve faster than the increase in the number of owners of smartphones with LTE.
