Key factors affecting mobile broadband speed
What speed you need depends on how you want to use the internet. If you can choose different speeds, a lower speed is often sufficient if you only want to browse and send emails. If you are going to use services that require a lot of capacity, such as downloading music and movies, streaming TV and radio, and playing online games, this requires you to choose a higher speed for your broadband. If you have multiple computers in the household that will be connected at the same time, a higher speed is also recommended.
Page summary
The speed of mobile broadband depends on how you use it. For simple browsing and email, a lower speed is sufficient, while streaming, downloading, and gaming require higher speeds. If multiple devices are used simultaneously in the household, higher capacity is also needed.
The mobile broadband agreement should contain clear information about download and upload speeds. The speed can be affected by factors such as coverage, router placement, equipment capacity, and how many people are using the network at the same time. The tool Bredbandskollen can be used to measure the speed. If the results do not match the agreement, the equipment and settings may need to be reviewed.
What should be included in your contract for a mobile broadband service?
For mobile broadband, the contract should contain a clear and understandable explanation of the estimated maximum and advertised download and upload speeds.
Factors affecting the speed of a mobile broadband
Your speed can be affected by many different factors, below we list some examples:
- Coverage – you need to have good coverage with the operator you choose. You can check the coverage on the operators’ coverage maps
- The physical environment such as the thickness and material of walls can affect the wireless transmission
- The placement of your router, the more centrally located it is in the home, the better
- How many people are surfing at the same time at home or in the area (therefore you may have different speeds at different times of the day at the same location). Since mobile broadband depends on the capacity of the mobile mast you are connected to, the load on the mast can vary
- The capacity of your equipment, such as your router, computer, tablet, or mobile, and where you are in relation to the router
- Installed software (such as firewall)
- Other equipment that interferes (such as a broken cable from the modem to the computer or other computers connected to the same network)
- Virus on your computer
- How heavily loaded with traffic the website you are visiting is.
Checklist for what you can do if you experience that your mobile broadband is slow:
If you want to measure the capacity of your broadband connection, you can use the test tool Bredbandskollen. The test is run by IIS (formerly .SE), the Foundation for Internet Infrastructure.
Your contract should include information about what rights you have in the event of continuous or regularly recurring differences between the agreed and actual performance regarding broadband speed. If you believe that the measurement result you get for your speed does not live up to the speed you should have according to your contract or promises made before the contract, you should first see if there are any measures you can take regarding your own equipment. Go through the action guide available on Bredbandskollen and then measure again.
If after this you still consider the measurement result to be poor, you should save measurement results from three different occasions at different times of the day, preferably spread over weekends and weekdays. You should then send a complaint/fault report to the operator. If your speed deviates from what is agreed or promised, the service may be faulty and you may then have several rights as a consumer.