Across four districts in Beijing, we tested whether the "network speed reduction" is true

Recently, a piece of news about the slowdown of domestic 4G networks has attracted widespread attention. For this reason, Feixiang.com reporters have conducted multiple tests on the 4G network speeds of the three major operators in some areas with relatively dense traffic in Beijing. The following are the test results.

First, we came to the Joy City Shopping Center on Xida Wang Road, Chaoyang District, Beijing. Indoor test data showed that the 4G network download and upload speeds of the three major operators were relatively stable.

Afterwards, we came to the outdoor area of ​​the China World Trade Center in Chaoyang District, Beijing, where there is a large flow of people. Not only are there many people working there, but as it is a transportation hub, there is also a large flow of people. In the test data here, the download peak performance is not very ideal, but the data flow is relatively stable.

Below are the test results of our subway train running from Jianguomen to Dongdan in Dongcheng District, Beijing. From the figure, we can see that the 4G network uplink and download data of the three major operators are relatively ideal. It is worth mentioning that during the train running, the network delay is not high and there is no packet loss.

Then we came to the Xidan area in Xicheng District, Beijing. Compared with the China World Trade Center, the number of fixed office workers here is less, but the flow of people is obviously much larger. The following is the test data.

Finally, we came to Wukesong Huaxi Live Shopping Plaza in Haidian District, Beijing, which is close to Wukesong Sports Center. The test time was around 17:00. It happened that the World Cup basketball game was held here that day, so the flow of people was larger than before. The test data of uplink and download were relatively ideal, but the fluctuation was more obvious than the previous test location.

Through the test, we can see that in the same location and at the same time period, the 4G network conditions of the three major domestic operators are basically the same. In the test, we did not find any "unable to connect" or obvious "slow network download speed". In general, the 4G network usage in several scenarios of this test is basically within the normal range.

Of course, our test results are somewhat one-sided. So, what is the current development of my country's mobile network? According to the "China Broadband Speed ​​Status Report" released by the Broadband Development Alliance in August this year, as of the end of the second quarter of this year, in terms of 4G network download speed, China Unicom was 24.86Mbit/s, China Mobile was 23.46Mbit/s, and China Telecom was 23.23Mbit/s. At present, the average download speed of my country's mobile broadband users when using 4G networks to access the Internet has reached 23.58Mbit/s (i.e. 23.58Mbps), an increase of 16.6% year-on-year.

The increase in the average download speed mentioned here clearly reflects the improvement in the quality of my country's mobile network.

Regarding the "network speed reduction", on August 22, Wen Ku, spokesman of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and director of the Information and Communications Development Department, pointed out in an interview with the media that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has never and will not require relevant operators to reduce or limit 4G network speeds in the future.

Afterwards, China Telecom, China Mobile and China Unicom responded to the rumors of "4G speed reduction" one after another: they have never received any requirements from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to reduce or limit the 4G network speed, nor have they reduced the speed of the 4G network.

So why do some users feel that their network has been "slowed down"?

This may be related to the recent increase in mobile phone users.

According to the economic operation of the communications industry in the first seven months of 2019 released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, as of the end of July, the total number of mobile phone users of the three operators reached 1.59 billion, a year-on-year increase of 4.4%. It is worth noting that the number of new users in that month turned from a net decrease in the previous month to a net increase, an increase of 5.28 million from the end of June. At present, the scale of 4G users is 1.24 billion, accounting for 78.2% of mobile phone users, an increase of 3.8% from the end of last year.

From a technical perspective, the 4G network itself is a shared network, which means that all users accessing the same base station share the network resources of the base station. Therefore, due to fluctuations in the number of access users, the network speed will fluctuate accordingly.

The operator's response mentioned that during peak hours, in some areas with large traffic and concentrated Internet users, there may be a temporary decrease in the 4G network experience rate due to too many customers accessing the Internet at the same time.

But don’t worry, judging from the current speed at which network quality is improving, some of the poor network experience issues will be resolved soon.

There are many factors that affect network speed. The increase in the number of users mentioned above is only one of them. Another reason may be the increase in the average traffic usage of current users.

Data shows that the average mobile Internet access traffic (DOU) per household in 2018 was 4.42GB, while in July this year, DOU reached 8.33GB, an increase of nearly 100%, which has put great pressure on operators' mobile networks.

In this regard, Director Wen Ku said that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will start from three aspects to promote the expansion and upgrading of mobile networks, so that users can truly feel faster and more stable network speeds. First, continue to promote network speed increase and fee reduction. Second, guide operators to actively carry out network expansion and upgrading. Third, coordinate and promote the coordinated development of 4G and 5G.

Note: The mobile terminal for this test is Samsung Galaxy 10+, and the test software is SPEEDTEST.