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16th June 2006 - The UK operators were put to the test by
Argogroup, the specialist in mobile user experience testing,
before, during and after England's World Cup match against
Trinidad & Tobago. The results were less than thrilling for
mobile industry watchers.
Of the five operators, 3 remained the best all-round performer
when in 3G coverage, Orange performed consistently if unspectacularly
while T-Mobile performed well on SMS alerts - even adding
commentary to the raw score line alert - but with delays on
picture and video alerts, some of which would not download
at all or were delivered in the wrong order.
Argogroup Test Highlights
* Lacking Pace - News of Crouch's goal reached users of FIFA's
free alert service in just over two minutes compared with
the four-operator average of 3.95 minutes. The fifth operator
failed the test entirely as users could not sign up for the
alerts due to portal errors.
* Relegation Zone - The worst-performing operator took a
full 7.3 minutes to deliver the Crouch goal alert - and charged
12p for the service.
* Failed to equalize - Users awaiting news of Steven Gerrard's
second goal fared no better. FIFA/Yahoo delivered the SMS
alert in 73 seconds, while the operators, on average, took
4.1 minutes. The worst performer made the sluggish Ronaldo
look like Thierry Henry, taking over eight minutes to deliver
the alert.
* 3G long shot goes wide - One operator's 3G portal performance
disappointed fans who happened to be out of 3G coverage as
its portal reverted to a sports-free zone.
* Red card - The worst-performing operator was on average
three times slower than the pack, sending the team line-ups
to sports fans 44 minutes after kick-off. Its SMS goal alert
was seven times slower than FIFA's, arriving long after other
operators had delivered an edited video clip of the goal.
The good news - at least there was no 'Mr Men' promotion showing
during the match this time!
The test was the second to be run by Argogroup, with results
that mirrored those for England's first game against Paraguay
last Saturday.
"Clearly, our industry has a long way to go if we want to
be seen as a serious provider of sports coverage," said James
Pearce, Argogroup CTO, "Operators have proven (with the FIFA
alerts) that they can deliver 160 characters in a timely manner.
What they failed to show is that they can add value by delivering
their own content faster than, say, the average newspaper."
Argogroup will continue to monitor the performance of the
mobile operators as the World Cup progresses.
"This is hugely important to everyone in the industry," says
David Frodsham, Argogroup CEO, "Our collective future rests
on our ability to be credible content players. We believe
that active testing can help operators get it right - but
first we must all admit we're getting it wrong."
Argogroup plans to continue testing throughout the World
Cup.
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