Mobile benchmarking firm RootMetrics (Ookla) has today published their H1 2024 study of UK mobile networks (calls, texts etc.) and mobile broadband performance, which once again sees EE (BT) come top against rivals at Vodafone, Three UK and O2 (Virgin Media). EE also “edged past” Three UK to deliver the “best 5G experience“.
As usual, the new study made use of the “latest” 5G Samsung smartphones (model not disclosed) – purchased off the shelf from operator stores – to test both 4G and 5G performance across all four primary operators in 16 of the UK’s most populated metro cities. The team then conducted a total of 625,047 tests, including at hundreds of different locations (795 of which were indoor) and while driving a total of 22,909 miles during the day and night.
The results shown below have then been split into several categories (network reliability, speed, data, call and text quality etc.) and each is assigned a score out of 100 (higher numbers = better). In terms of the UK-wide results, EE came top in every single category, followed by Three UK. By comparison, O2 (Virgin Media) were typically sat at the bottom of most categories, which is sadly where we tend to find them in most such studies.
Sadly, every single mobile operator suffered a small decline in their overall scores, at least when compared with the last report six months ago. The biggest fall was seen by Vodafone (from 90.1 to 79.1), which is a big part of the reason why Three UK was able to take second place despite also suffering a modest fall.
Overall Scores for H1 2024 (vs H2 2023)
1. EE – 91.5 (down from 94.2)
2. Three UK – 83.2 (down from 89.3)
3. Vodafone – 79.1 (down sharply from 90.1)
4. O2 – 75.3 (down from 86.4)
In terms of the average (median) UK download speeds on both 4G and 5G networks combined – EE delivered the strongest data speeds of 79.8Mbps (up strongly from 68.6Mbps at the last report), while Three UK delivered 44.5Mbps (up from 32.3Mbps), Vodafone grew to 42.8Mbps (up from 34.5Mbps) and O2 improved but still scored bottom with 23.3Mbps (up from 19.9Mbps). But the picture does differ a bit between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
However, the situation starts to change when we look specifically at 5G networks, where EE and Three UK are much closer in terms of mobile broadband speed. Overall, EE scored an average media download of 207.5Mbps (up from 174.1Mbps), while Three UK delivered 210.3Mbps (up from 165.7Mbps), Vodafone was a little bit behind on 184.9Mbps (up from 158.3Mbps) and sadly O2 put in a poor result of 79.7Mbps (up from 68.7Mbps).
In terms of 5G availability, EE and Three UK topped 60% 5G availability during UK-wide testing, while O2 and Vodafone weren’t far behind at 55.9% and 47.2%, respectively. The table at the bottom shows where each operator made its biggest increase to 5G availability during testing in major cities in the UK in 1H 2024. But we note that they’ve removed the results from Southampton, since they didn’t test that market in 2H 2023.
Just for a quick comparison. At the last report in H2 2023, RootMetrics reported that all of EE (52.3%), Three UK (57.6%), and O2 (54.5%) each posted 5G availability above 52% during their UK-wide testing, while Vodafone lagged behind with 5G availability of 41.9%.
The RootMetrics’ report only provides bits and pieces of selected information, while we would have preferred to see a bit more detail (e.g. upload performance and latency). The data also seems to be dominated by an urban focus, which gives little weighting for poorer performance in rural areas. But that is often the caveat with this type of scientific, albeit very manual, testing – there’s not enough data to give a full UK picture.
RootMetrics UK Mobile Performance Review H1 2024
https://rootmetrics.com/uk-mobile-performance-review-h1-2024
UPDATE 9:39am
We’ve had a comment from EE.
Marc Allera, Chief Executive Officer at EE, said:
“The average internet user in the UK spends more than six hours every day online, using multiple connected devices. This makes having reliable connectivity at home and on the move more important than ever. This research gives every person in the UK a trusted source of insight into the performance of all mobile operators, including in the busiest cities where we all compete every day to provide the most reliable experience.
With that in mind, for EE to be crowned the UK’s best mobile network for eleven years in a row is a remarkable achievement. We’ve worked tirelessly to deliver the fastest and most reliable mobile network in the UK and we will continue to put network quality at the heart of our customer experience.”