Mobile broadband notspots mapped 英国绘制移动宽带盲点图

There are still significant notspots when it comes to 3G mobile coverage¹ in the UK, regulator Ofcom has revealed.

网络服务商Ofcom透露，英国3G时代的移动电话覆盖率仍然有很多盲点。

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Mobile data networks are a boon for increasing numbers

It has pledged to investigate why some places, particularly in rural areas, are still failing to get any coverage.

It also said it will investigate mobile broadband speeds, which vary（变化，不同） tremendously in different areas and at different times of day.

Between February 2008 and February 2009 there were two million new connections to mobile broadband, said Ofcom.

3G (or Third Generation) services allow people to connect to the web via a wireless³ network, either using a phone, a dongle（软件狗） or datacard which can be plugged into a PC or a laptop.

In the UK such services are offered by operators such as Vodafone, Orange, O2, T-Mobile and 3.

But there are questions about how reliable these services are and whether they can provide the speeds needed by consumers.

More spectrum⁴（光谱，范围）

Research from broadband communications firm Epitiro recently found that the average download speed achieved with mobile broadband was just under 1Mbps (megabit per second).

At 0300 this average rose to 1.8Mbps, illustrating⁵ that contention⁶（争论，争辩） issues - how many people use the service at any given time - plays a big role in limiting speed.

On average mobile broadband users were only getting a quarter of advertised speeds, found Epitiro's study.

Increasingly consumers are dropping their fixed⁷ line phones in favour of mobile. While mobile calls increased by 11 billion minutes during 2008, the number of minutes on fixed lines fell by 8 billion.

Consumers are getting increasingly data-hungry. In 2003, just 1% of revenue per mobile connection came from data but by 2008 that rose to 6%, according to Ofcom.

The Digital Britain report pledged to free up more 3G spectrum, which should improve coverage.

Consumer Focus, an organisation⁸ dedicated⁹ to（献给） campaigning for a fair deal for consumers, welcomed Ofcom's review of the mobile market.

"Some consumers find themselves excluded（排除，除外） from mobile communications due to gaps in 3G coverage or the market's failure to make new technology accessible to all," said Audrey Gallacher, telecoms expert at Consumer Focus.

She felt that Ofcom could do more to make it easier for consumers to sign up to mobile broadband.

"Accessing the best deal in a market where mobile operators offer a bewildering（令人困惑的，使人混乱的） array of over 200,000 different tariffs¹⁰（关税） is a real challenge," she said.

"With mobiles now treated as an essential service rather than a luxury, there is more pressure than ever before on mobile companies to give consumers a fair deal and make mobile services accessible（可得到的，易接近的） to all," she added.