EE has been rated as the UK’s best mobile network in terms of performance, according to new research from OpenSignal, with the BT-owned operator recording improvements in 4G speeds and availability across the country.
OpenSignal collected 2.17 million measurements from 525,500 devices between December and February this year to see how users were experiencing mobile networks in a real life setting.
Of the seven national awards up for grabs in this latest round of testing, EE won six, including video experience, download speed, upload speed, latency, 4G availability and 4G coverage experience. Vodafone pipped EE to just one category – Voice App Experience.
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OpenSignal rankings
EE was the only operator with which users were able to get 4G signal on more than 90 per cent of occasions. OpenSignal says it expects availability performance to tail off once an operator has reached that figure but EE actually increased its score by 3.66 percentage points to 94.8 per cent. O2 was second with 89.2 per cent, Vodafone third with 88 per cent and Three last with 80 percent.
In terms of download speed, EE extended its lead over Vodafone by 2.1Mbps during the testing period. EE scored 34.6Mbps, with Vodafone second on 23Mbps. Three was third on 19.1Mbps and O2 last with 16.6Mbps.
Tests were also conducted in 16 major towns and cities with EE once again dominant, winning 68 of the 96 individual awards on offer and drawing another 27. Only O2 pipped EE to an award outright.
These are the first set of rankings to take into account 5G performance, however OpenSignal expects the impact of 5G to limited until operators make further progress on their deployments. Separately, it also anticipates the recently announced Shared Rural Network to improve availability in more parts of the country.
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