UK operator EE has been found to have the country’s best mobile network for call, text and data performance and reliability, according to new research.
RootMetrics measured the performance of all four of the UK’s major operators in the second half of 2013 across six metrics – call, mobile internet and text performance, reliability, speed, and overall quality of service.
EE topped each of the six categories with an overall score of 84.6 out of 100. Vodafone finished last in all except for the UK network speed category. It finished with an overall score of 52.4 and failed to meet the minimum performance threshold for reliability in three of the UK’s four nations. Its mobile internet was perceived as the worst in the UK, with a score of 30.2.
Three was second overall with a score of 73.5. It scored highly for reliability and data performance, finishing second in both categories, but performed less well for speed, finishing last with a score of 69.0.
O2, the UK’s second biggest operator, came third overall with a score of 66.5. It was the UK’s second fastest network behind EE and scored highly for call and text performance. However, RootMetrics was less impressed with its reliability and mobile internet performance.
Matthew Howett, telecoms regulation analyst at Ovum warned that Vodafone should not be written off: “They too have ambitious plans for network upgrades which are being delivered through Project Spring. Some of the early results of this are probably not being captured in this first ranking from RootMetrics.”
RootMetrics said that, overall, it drove more than 23,000 miles and collected more than 840,000 samples – the equivalent of one sample for every 100 mobile phone contracts in the UK.