Jersey mobile broadband speeds to go up to 42Mb/s

The current top mobile broadband speed in Jersey is 14.4Mb/s from JT and Airtel-Vodafone

Government owned JT Global is to increase the speed of its mobile broadband network to 42Mb/s from April.

The company claimed it will be one of the fastest 3G networks in the world with uploads speeds of 5.8Mb/s.

Head of Mobile Dave Newbold said the company would spend just over £500,000 on the development.

He said moving to this service would allow for faster speeds with far less investment and much faster than they could with 4G.

Ian Campbell, vice president of Airtel-Vodafone, said it would be better to wait for next generation 4G technology.

He said 4G would revolutionise the market as the company would be able to guarantee speeds for customers.

JT said it had seen a 138% increase in mobile data use in the past 12-months, putting the increase down to an increase in smartphone sales.

Mr Newbold told BBC News: "The programmes take three months to deploy, it is part of our GigaBit Isles programme to deliver the fastest speeds in the world to Jersey."

Mr Campbell said it would continue upgrading the network but there were limits on what could be achieved with a 3G network.

He said: "You've got to be careful with mobile broadband, the customer doesn't always get that speed.

"It depends on the number of people using the mast, you can't guarantee a quality of service."