Best UK mobile network revealed – Has your provider come out on top?

EE, Vodafone, O2 and Three have all been put through their paces in a new study that looks at the performance of the leading mobile providers’ 4G and 5G networks. The latest RootMetrics study has been published this week which analyses all of the UK’s four top mobile networks for the first half of this year. So who is the winner?

Once again EE has come out on top but there’s a reason for customers of all mobile networks to be pleased, especially if you’re with Three.

The study, which used Samsung smartphones purchased from operators’ stores and took data from over 640,000 tests carried out in hundreds of different locations, revealed that EE was the best performing network overall, followed by Vodafone, O2 and Three.

All four networks saw their overall scores improve when compared to the study looking at the second half of last year.

But this doesn’t tell the full story. One of the most interesting findings is that – despite finishing fourth in the standings overall – Three has made “impressive” gains when it came to its 5G performance.

In fact, the RootMetrics study said EE and Three were “neck and neck” when it came to delivering the best overall 5G experience.

The research said the Three network is “one to keep an eye on” after showing “excellent” progress since the last study and seeing growth in key areas like 5G availability and speed.

The RootMetrics study said: “While all four operators continue to make progress and provide users with strong reliability, good latency, and fast speeds, EE and Three offered greater 5G availability and are currently neck-and-neck when it comes to delivering the best overall 5G experience in the UK. That said, it’s important to keep in mind that with the competition continuing to increase in such a dynamic landscape, we could see further changes ahead.”

While with EE the mobile operator either won or shared winning in every UK-wide category the RootMetrics study looked at.

In fact, EE has been named the UK’s overall best mobile network in every RootMetrics study dating back to the second half of 2013.

That’s a nine-year winning streak.

Speaking about EE’s performance in the study, RootMetrics said: “EE continued its run of excellence in UK-wide testing, ranking first in all seven UK RootScore categories for the second straight test period (including a tie with Virgin Media O2 for text performance). In fact, EE has won the UK Overall RootScore Award outright in every test period dating back to 2H 2013, giving EE honours as the UK’s best network for nine years and counting. The first half of 2022 also marks the tenth consecutive test period in which EE has ranked first in six categories total: overall performance, reliability, speed, as well as data, call, and text performance. Moreover, EE’s aggregate median download speed of 66.2 Mbps was over twice as fast as that of any other network.”

Here are the overall scores for the latest RootMetrics study…

EE – 96.7 (up from 95.3 in H2 2021)

Vodafone – 91.1 (up from 90.9 in H2 2021)

O2 – 89.3 (up from 88.6 in H2 2021)

Three UK – 89 (up from 87.6 in H2 2021)