If you want to get the best mobile phone signal which network should you choose? The big two, O2 and Vodafone are obvious choices, but what about the newbies, EE and Three – how good are their networks?
It turns out that Vodafone and EE are joint best mobile networks in the UK both scoring 803 out of 1000 in P3 Communications‘s network benchmarks tests. However it’s not quite that simple when you take a closer look at the results.
If you consider voice calls only then Vodafone closely followed by O2 are the best networks. Three takes third place and EE is stone cold dead in last place. However Three edged ahead in rural areas and O2 are strong in smaller towns but fall behind on connecting roads.
Change to looking at data though and EE are way out in front followed by Vodafone and then Three. O2 take last place in data performance. EE smash it for data in cities, but it’s a much more even picture in rural areas where Vodafone just pops them for performance. On connecting roads Vodafone and O2 are lagging behind with EE a clear winner.
For Londoners, O2 is best for data but worst for voice, EE is best for voice and joint worst for data. Overall Vodafone is best due to good performance (2nd place) for both voice and data.
The only thing lacking from the Mobile Network Test is that they didn’t consider signal strength for either voice or data when travelling by train. Millions of Brits use the train on a daily basis and whilst some have WiFi, voice networks often drop out as does data.
There is no clear winner across the four mobile operators and best advice still has to be to check their performance in your local area before plumping for a new contact. As well as performance at home, also consider where you’ll be using your mobile and whether towns or cities or connecting roads are the most important places to get a good signal.
One Response
its been many years since mobile “performance” has been an issue for me, dont go rural that often, if i drop my signal heading towards the door is usually enough to bring it back.
but the last time i had a problem with vodafone i needed fixed, wow, worst customer service ever. like, worse than ebay.
“no nobody can help you, we would need to get a manager to phone you back”
– 16 weeks later, and a million calls to voda, still never spoke to a manager.
dont care how good your coverage is, if you treat me like that, i’ll never buy a damn thing from you again.