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Mobile benchmarking firm RootMetrics (Ookla) has today published their H1 2025 study of UK mobile networks (calls, texts etc.) and 4G/5G mobile broadband speeds. The results once again name EE as the best mobile provider after they scooped up the highest scores and fastest data speeds across most categories.
The study itself is based on the results of over 625,000 tests, conducted by a team of testers using off-the-shelf Smartphones between January and June 2025 (drive and walk tests), to measure the real-world performance of mobile operators in the United Kingdom. But it should be said that this study is focused on the results from 16 of the UK’s largest metropolitan markets, which means that it isn’t much good at reflecting the balance from slower rural connectivity.
The results shown below are typically 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, with Vodafone being the runner-up. By comparison, O2 echoed their results in other studies by coming bottom of all the same categories.
In terms of the overall results, every single mobile operator managed to improve their scores over the previous biannual study, with the biggest improvements being recorded by Three UK and O2. Otherwise, EE delivered the fastest median mobile broadband download speed of 110.8Mbps, followed by Vodafone (48.4Mbps), Three UK (45.7Mbps) and O2 (36.2Mbps).
Overall Scores for H1 2025 (vs H2 2024)
1. EE – 93.2 (up from 91.7)
2. Vodafone – 85.8 (up from 85.3)
3. Three UK – 84.2 (up from 81.2)
4. O2 – 80.1 (up from 76.7)
Finally, in terms of 5G specific mobile broadband speeds, EE delivered median download speeds of 241.2Mbps, followed by Three UK (217.3Mbps), Vodafone (163.8Mbps) and then O2 (98.7Mbps). 5G availability also continued to improve – EE and O2 each recorded more than 70% availability in UK-wide testing. Three UK followed at just over 60%, while Vodafone trailed at 53.6%. For perspective, the highest availability they recorded in 2H 2024 was EE’s 66.8%, highlighting the progress made as 5G continues to expand.
However, 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). As above, the data is also 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 simply not enough data to give a complete picture of the UK.
RootMetrics UK Mobile Performance Review H1 2025
https://www.ookla.com/../rootmetrics-uk-state-of-mobile-union-1h-2025