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Network benchmarking firm Opensignal has reported that they’ve seen the “first measurable improvements” in their data from the recent merger between mobile operators Vodafone and Three UK, which appears to indicate that VodafoneThree is delivering some “significant coverage” improvements and “faster speeds” (mobile broadband).
Just to recap. VodafoneThree’s post-merger plan involves investing £11bn into upgrading the UK’s 5G mobile infrastructure and coverage over the next decade, while also delivering improvements by combining spectrum and existing 4G infrastructure / mast sites (here, here and here). The combined business has previously stated that it aspires to reach more than 99.95% of the UK population with their 5G Standalone (5GSA) network by 2034 and push fixed wireless access to 82% of households by 2030, among other things.
The merged company has already begun to deploy the benefits of their combined spectrum and joint network roaming via their new Multi-Operator Core Network (MOCN), which helps customers to connect to whichever mast/service gives them the best signal. For example, in August 2025 they revealed that the feature had gone live via a total of 600 mast sites, with 9,000 to follow by the end of the first year of the merger being formed (i.e. March 2026).
Similarly, the operator has previously claimed that 7 million Three UK customers have experienced an average 20% boost in 4G (mobile broadband) speeds since they began the multi-year process of fully combining both networks.
What does the new study say?
Based on Opensignal’s early data, once full integration is completed, Three UK users are expected to see around a 13% improvement in “Coverage Experience” (Opensignal’s own metric for measuring network coverage), while Vodafone users will see a 7% increase. For the 5G “Coverage Experience“, the uplift is projected to be much greater — a 92% improvement for Vodafone users and 7% for Three UK users.
Post-merger, Vodafone and Three UK users are also said to be experiencing “improved reliability” in areas of existing coverage, while Three UK users are measuring “improved download speeds“. For example, Three’s network saw the metric for Download Speed Experience increasing by an impressive 8%, from 43.16Mbps recorded in Q2 2025 to around 46.72Mbps as recorded in Q3.
Similarly, both Vodafone & Three UK users are said to be “experiencing more reliable networks post-merger“. Three UK users saw a strong increase of 20 points from Q2 2025 to Q3 2025, going from a Reliability Experience score of 876 points (on a 100 to 1000 point scale) to 897 points in Q3 2025. Vodafone users saw Reliability Experience scores improving by a respectable 10 points from Q2 2025 (887 points) to Q3 2025 (897 points).
Opensignal defines Reliability as the ability of their users to connect to and successfully complete (basic) network tasks.
“These early results highlight that Vodafone and Three’s network sharing is already delivering more than just expanded coverage. Users are seeing faster speeds and more dependable connectivity, marking the first concrete benefits of integration. Together, these gains position VodafoneThree as an increasingly competitive player in the UK mobile market,” said Opensignal.
The rollout of MOCN-enabled sites is expected to conclude around 2033, as both operators upgrade sites via either software or hardware enhancements. But as we’ve previously reported, full convergence into a single core network remains a longer term target and one that doesn’t yet appear to have a solid date attached (here). It will be interesting to see how things progress over the next few years.