The latest stats are in measuring the performance of the UK’s four major mobile networks, with one provider head and shoulders above the rest. The figures come from RootMetrics, a division of network monitoring firm Ookla, which has just published its biannual report known as the ‘UK State of the Mobile Union’ tally.
According to the report, EE is the best UK mobile network, winning or sharing first place in every category RootMetrics measures, including for fastest 5G network and ‘Best 5G Experience’.
“EE has won the UK Overall RootScore Award outright in every test period dating back to 2H 2013, giving EE honors as the UK’s best network for 11.5 years running,” RootMetrics said.
“EE also posted the fastest UK-wide median download speed at 89.9 Mbps, nearly double that of the closest competitor (Vodafone at 49.9 Mbps), and secured Best 5G Experience honours through its combination of widespread 5G availability and strong performance.”
EE, Three and Virgin Media O2, the latter of which owns the O2 network, all recorded a 61 percent national availability of 5G, with Vodafone lagging behind its three competitors with 48.3 percent coverage across the UK. All these scores were an improvement compared to one year ago when RootMetrics did not record any operator as having more than 60 percent coverage.
Rootmetrics conducted more than 627,000 tests of mobile connections to collate the results, and crowned EE the best overall network, as well as naming it top of the pile for reliability, accessibility, speed, data, calls, and video performance. It scored joint best alongside Three and Vodafone for texting performance.
This version of the report, unlike previous versions, did not declare a winner for ‘Fasts 5G experience’ for the UK, as no provider reached RootMetrics’s required standards.
“All the report’s testing was carried out using the latest Samsung 5G-enabled handsets sold by retailers to test both 4G LTE and 5G performance on the networks of EE, Three, Virgin Media O2, and Vodafone,” RootMetrics noted.
Despite scoring bottom for 5G availability, Vodafone was praised in other areas.
“Vodafone was a strong number-two performer in our UK-wide testing, sharing the UK Text RootScore Award and ranking second in every other category,” RootMetrics said.
“Vodafone’s improvement was noteworthy, with the operator jumping from third place to second in six categories since our last round of testing.”
It hopped to second in the charts overall, as well as for reliability, speed, data and video performance, all at the expense of Three.
Notably, Virgin Media O2 did not earn any UK-wide awards in the report, the data for whose results were collected between July and December 2024.
EE launched the UK’s first 5G network back in May 2019. Since then, all four major providers have rolled out the next-generation technology up and down Britain, expanding coverage by adding 5G mobile towers across the nation. Most modern smartphones such as Apple iPhones and new Android devices can connect to 5G, which promises faster mobile internet speeds for apps.
5G is also a benefit for the operators as the technology can often have better capacity than the older 4G standard. This means in high density areas such as city centres or sports stadiums, more devices can connect to the nearby cellular towers and still download the data necessary to use apps, stream video or make calls on platforms such as WhatsApp.
If you’ve ever had a signal show on your phone but not been able to connect, it could be because too many people are around, so the network is unavailable.
In the near future, the UK’s four mobile networks are set to shrink to just three, as in December the UK’s Competition & Markets Authority approved the proposed merger of Vodafone and Three. This would create the UK’s largest network by subscribers, taking the new company’s mobile customer base to a combined 25 million, a figure that would leapfrog current leader EE’s 24 million.
