Virgin Media delighted to win Broadband Genie 'Dongle on the Move' Award

PR Log (Press Release) – May 28, 2009 – Armed with laptops, plus dongles supplied by all six providers, Genie staff took a 350-mile round trip from Cambridge to Bournemouth, putting the dongles through their paces all the way. The road trip was designed to see how well mobile broadband really performed 'on the move', as it is often advertised by providers.

Virgin Media director of mobile Jonathan Kini said: "We are delighted to win this award for our mobile broadband, which highlights the reliability of our dongle, and the ease of use that our customers can enjoy. Virgin Media offer a complete range of broadband solutions, so that we can accommodate the needs of users throughout the country, and our mobile broadband is perfect for customers who want value for money and wish to avoid being tied to a specific location."

This was an on-the-spot exercise over two days, using the kind of frustrating conditions consumers find them themselves in every day. The fascinating results echoed the general reaction Mobile Broadband Genie gets from its visitors: we expect much more than it is currently able to supply.

Broadband Genie editor Chris Marling said: "Mobile broadband has come a long way in a short time, but consumers need to be aware of its limitations. The service is often oversold, which can leave customers disillusioned. However, for many people, it can be a great solution to their internet problems.

"We would like to congratulate Virgin Media, as well as runners up Vodafone, who both performed admirably. They completed the majority of challenges and maintaining reasonable average upload and download speeds throughout. However, both still suffered disconnects and long periods of downtime in rural locations."

Mobile Broadband Genie performed a variety of tests throughout the journey. As well as running the Mobile Broadband Genie speed tests throughout the trip, the team performed common tasks such as downloading BBC podcasts, streaming audio and video via YouTube and Spotify, and uploading photos to Facebook.

Dongle on the Move 2009 winner: Virgin Media
runner up: Vodafone

Sub-categories
Road Trip Downloader 2009 winner: Virgin Media   
runner up: Vodafone

Road Trip Uploader 2009 winner: Vodafone      
runner up: O2

Road Trip's Most Stable 2009 winner: O2      
runner up: Orange

Road Trip Coverage 2009 winner: Vodafone      
runner up: Virgin Media

Dongle Software 2009 joint winners: T-Mobile and Virgin Media

Overall analysis can be found at http://www.broadbandgenie.co.uk/articles/mobile-broadban ....

More complete results for each ISP can be found on their provider pages, which can be easily accessed from http://mobile.broadbandgenie.co.uk/dongles


ENDS