Mobile Network Comparison

The BBC’s fantastic iPlayer is getting more and more mobile use. When it was first introduced over five years ago, it was only ever intended for viewing on computers at home – even HD TV was far from a reality for the average user. However, nowadays its common to see someone watching the latest TV show or film using their mobile while on the bus. With the recent furore about the mobile data limits imposed by EE on their new 4G network, we thought we’d look into how far your bandwidth allowance will go when watching TV on BBC iPlayer.

There are lots of varying answers online as to how much of your mobile data allowance iPlayer will use up. A big problem with many of them is they are guesses or outdated. iPlayer has recently rolled out higher-quality streams that will use up more bandwidth. Another issue is that it’s quite hard to measure exactly how much data is actually being transferred by iPlayer as many users don’t;’ know how to isolate it and measure just that rather than all the other downloads and uploads going on with torrents, email, push notifications, HTTP requests and other protocols all running in the background.

We ran some simple tests on five different iPlayer programmes to see how much bandwidth it uses. We measured the total amount of data and came up with an average amount for an hour long programme.

The answer

On average, watching TV on iPlayer will use about 632MB/hour. It could be as low as 600MB/hour but it could also be much higher so, to be safe you should budget about 600-700MB for every hour that you are streaming.

How long will my allowance last?

With data allowances on most mobile phones being between 500MB and 1GB the simple table below will make it clear how much TV you can afford to watch each month before going over your limit. Don’t forget that the amounts below are if you only watch TV. If you use you mobile internet to download games or even check email and update Twitter, the amounts will be less (in some cases significantly so).

Many more details

The way that iPlayer works is incredibly complicated. There are a variety of audio and video codecs, you than access it on a huge array of platforms and there are simply hundreds of variables to consider. On top of this, calculating how big a certain piece of video will be when encoded and compressed on a computer is already an inexact science. If you just want to know roughly how much mobile data you’ll use watching TV on iPlayer, the figure above will do. But if you’re more interested, we’ll delve into the details a bit more.

Our calculations

To work out how much bandwidth it really uses, we took a sample of five different programmes that were recently broadcast on BBC channels. We tried to get a variety of different shows as the particular characteristics of each TV show will result in slightly different file sizes. We then shut down all web services apart from iPlayer and used a bandwidth monitoring programme to see how much data each programme took. We repeated the results later using the HD version of the streams.

Having done all this, we collated the results and, using the broadcast length of each show, calculated a bandwidth rate for each in MB per hour. So now the table below displays how much bandwidth each show will take per hour of streaming as well as the average.

As you can see, watching the standard stream you’re looking at about 632MB/hour for streaming over iPlayer. This is quite high so definitely keep an eye out if you have any monthly bandwidth limit and especially if you tether your phone to stream TV using a PC or laptop.

The HD-quality stream may look fantastic but they use almost twice as much data. Our results showed that view HD material on BBC iPlayer uses about 1101MB/hour or almost 1.1GB/hour. With a 5GB limit you’ll run out of data just watching ten minutes of TV a day.

Other considerations

The original iPlayer app used a peer-to-peer protocol to distribute video. This meant that in addition to downloading the programme you were watching, you would also upload large amounts of data making the bandwidth required even larger. Sometimes uploads even continued after you stopped watching. However, this is no longer an issue. It is worth considering that iPlayer has recently upgraded to a higher quality data stream which means that the bandwidth required is greater and that old estimates are probably out of date.

Don’t forget that iPlayer also uses completely different audio and video codecs depending on the receiver you are using. They have various efficiencies and bandwidths too. The resolution also changes resulting in vastly different data usage amounts. So, for example the iPhone H.264 feeds from the BBC are higher quality than in the Flash-based in-browser iPlayer.

The stream quality and bandwidth required also depends on the network you use. So using a Nokia N95 to watch iPlayer over 3G will use less bandwidth than using Wifi while watching iPlayer through a Wii or iPhone will result in a limit on the resolution of the stream. The best way to watch it is with a PC (whether using wifi or tethered to your mobile phone) where you can choose the resolution, you get high-quality H.264 encoding and you can get resolutions up to 720p. This does mean that you need a lot more bandwidth though with data requirements coming in at up to about 1400MB/hour.

Conclusion

iPlayer uses a lot of bandwidth, especially if you want to view the lovely HD quality streams. We can predict roughly how much data it will take up but be sure to use an app to track your mobile internet usage if you want to be sure. And be aware of how much you’re using so if you don’t have unlimited data and need to keep within network limits, you don’t get hit by massive fees.

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At long long last, the UK’s auction of radio spectrum for 4G has finally started. The first stages of the actual bidding process are due to start very soon much to the relief of everyone who’s been waiting for a UK-wide 4G service.

The auction is being run by Ofcom but it has suffered numerous delays over the last few years. There has been lengthy and tedious legal wrangling between the main mobile networks about the terms of the auction. As a result, everyone has lost out and Britain is becoming the laughing stock of the Western world as it is so far behind in mobile broadband technology now.

Finally, Ofcom resolved the situation by giving T-Mobile and Orange owners Everything Everywhere (EE) a monopoly on rolling out 4G services. The regulator allowed the mega-network to repurpose its existing mobile spectrum to run 4G services on. This was last year before the auction for other 4G wavebands had been finalised. What it meant was that Everything Everywhere could launch 4G services first on the 1.8 Mhz spectrum while all the other networks had to wait to buy their own swathes of viable spectrum. EE eventually flicked the switch on 30 October last year.

Meanwhile, all the other networks have been patiently waiting for the auction to go ahead so they can pick up their own 4G spectrum. Last December, we were finally able to announce the finalised list of bidders. Vying for the limited amount of frequency allocations will be Vodafone, O₂ (Telefónica), 3 Mobile (Hutchison Whampoa), MLL Telecom, BT and PCCW Limited. EE is also bidding for more spectrum.

Ofcom has said that the new auction will double the amount of spectrum available for 4G mobile services. The auction bids will take place over incredible secure encrypted connections using brand new specially-designed software. This will ensure the confidentiality of the bids.

Up for grabs are 28 separate lots of radio spectrum. The frequency bands are split between 800 Mhz which was previously used for analogue TV signals and 2.6 Ghz. In total, an additional 250 Mhz of spectrum is going to be available. Ofcom expect that they will raise a total of over £3 billion from this auction.

We can expect the initial rounds of bidding to take place over the next month or so. Each company has taken extreme special measures to ensure the amount they are bidding remains a secret. The actual logistics of the auction are quite complicated as it uses what’s called the “combinatorial clock structure”. Effectively, Ofcom will provide guide prices and each mobile company has to decide which combination of frequency bands they want to bid on at those prices. Next, the price of each lot of radio spectrum is gradually raised until no-one is willing to pay the price any more.

We’ll continue to report on the auction as information comes in.

What do you think of the organisation of the 4G spectrum auction? Why do you think it’s taken so long? And which companies do you think will end up taking home some valuable 4G radio frequencies?

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Phones 4u, the independent mobile phone retailer, has joined up with EE to launch the latest virtual network in the UK. The new network will one of many running on EE’s infrastructure and it’s not clear just yet what their unique selling point will be nor what we can expect in the way of price tariffs. The new network will be called LIFE Mobile and will initially launch as just a 3G service with 4G connectivity promised in the future.

Phones 4u started off as Midlands Mobile Phones in the early days of mobiles back in 1987. It first emerged as Phones 4u in 1996 and is headquartered in Newcastle. Since being sold for £1.5 billion just over six years ago, the company has bought out the online firm Dialaphone for about £10 million and partnered with the Dixons group.

The company’s turnover is growing despite a very poor customer services record and a controversy in 2008 when Ofcom ruled that they had been misleading customers. Phones 4u was recently acquired by a private equity group a couple of years ago in a £700 million deal and now has over 550 UK shops and about 5000 employees.

But why are Phones 4u getting involved in the mobile network business? The company is doing well as it is just selling mobile phones. In fact, they sold over 1.5 million mobile contracts last year. Still, despite the strong results, the company is probably looking to diversify its income stream especially as the recession has hit the high street hard in recent years. It’s certain that Phones 4u doesn’t want to go the same way as Blockbuster, Woolworths and Jessops.

The reason for EE getting involved is less clear. Effectively they will be reselling their own product with a lower profit margin by offering their services cheaper through a virtual network owned by Phones 4u. However, it has been claimed that LIFE Mobile will offer 4G services later in the year. Many industry analysts have suspicions that EE’s 4G uptake hasn’t been as high as they hoped. By offering a parallel cut-price alternative, EE might be hoping to corner both ends of the market. They can sell their premium 4G product at high mark ups through their high-profile EE brand while bargain seekers might still sign up at a cheaper rate through Phones 4u. Although the marketplace is already quite crowded and Phones 4u are years behind rival company Carphone Warehouse and their Talkmobile network, branching out in this way would seem to be a smart move.

Having said that, there is certainly some reason for questions about how independent Phones 4u will remain now it’s running its own network. Given that it used to sell tariffs from all the major networks, it’s hard to see why they wouldn’t promote their own service more now. Will customers be losing out because they get biased advice? It’s too early to tell now but the Phones 4u head Tim Whiting has been quick to counter any fears. He claimed that the company will be focussing on customer satisfaction rather than sales volume. With the Phones 4u track record, this might be a little hard to swallow but we won’t make any judgement yet.

One other issue that Phones 4u might not have fully investigated is their choice of name. LIFE Mobile doesn’t utilise any of the brand recognition they have already through their high-street presence which is an interesting choice. It may be to differentiate the two to increase the perception of independence. However, there might be an issue as there is already a mobile company called Life Mobile. Jay Bartels runs a business in the US and has trademarked his company as Life Mobile over a year ago. We’ll look on with interest to see Whether this will result in a lawsuit in the near future.

LIFE Mobile will launch in March 2013 and we’ll be writing up our full review of them once we’ve had a chance to try out a SIM card.

What do you make of this? Can Phones 4u shake their negative customer service image? Do we really need another virtual network? Would you consider using this on your phone? And what do you make of the decision to partner with EE?

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