P3 Study Names EE and Vodafone Top for UK Mobile Connectivity in 2017

The latest 2017 P3 communications study of Mobile Network Operator performance in the United Kingdom, which involved drivetests, walktests and a crowdsourced assessment across 20 cities, has named EE as the best network for voice and data (3G / 4G) performance (Vodafone came 2nd).

The tests measured the quality of performance provided by the UK’s four primary network operators (Vodafone, EE, Three UK and O2), which made use of LTE Cat 9 (4G) and VoLTE-capable Smartphones (e.g. Samsung Galaxy S7). Apparently the cars also visited some “smaller towns and drove on trunk roads and motorways” (2,000 miles of them). The areas tested are said to cater for more than 17 million people, or roughly 27% of the UK population.

Unsurprisingly EE’s (BT) superior level of 4G network coverage and radio spectrum ownership is continuing to pay dividends, with the operator securing the top spot. Sadly O2 came last with a meagre grade of “satisfactory“, although both Three UK (3rd overall) and O2 are said to have “lost some ground compared to the previous year” (this is odd given that both have improved their 4G coverage since then).

Hakan Ekmen, Managing Director of P3, said:

“High-quality connectivity is essential to the UK’s future quality of life and competitiveness, so it is encouraging that three of the four main operators have been ranked as ‘good’ or ‘very good’. In 2018, over-the-top content services, technologies like carrier aggregation and voice over LTE as well as crowd-sourcing based measurements, will become more important. This will make next year’s results even more exciting.”

Overall each operator was given a score out of 1,000 available points. A broad summary of the results can be found below (see the bottom of this article for a more detailed summary of the Mobile Data tests).

In terms of data (Mobile Broadband) performance, P3 states that EE and Vodafone chase each other with continually growing data rates that currently go up to 450Mbps, based on the so-called carrier aggregation (the combination of multiple carrier / radio spectrum frequencies). By contrast, O2 and Three UK are said to stick with a solid 100Mbps and mainly focus on enlarging their 4G footprint.

In the drivetests and walktests that P3 conducted in the large cities of the UK, EE takes a clear lead in the data category. With also strong results in the larger cities, Vodafone closely follows in these areas. However, similar to the voice results, Three UK is said to perform “somewhat stronger” in smaller towns than the overall second-ranking Vodafone.

The study also examined performance in some of the UK’s largest cities (i.e. Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield – London was done separately), which found that EE generally takes the lead except in Glasgow and Liverpool where Vodafone beats them.

P3 also conducted a specific test of the London area, which by the narrowest of margins ranked EE top (score of 528) and they were followed by Vodafone (522), O2 (428) and Three UK (415). Last year Vodafone were no.1 for London.

NOTE: Tests of general network availability were also positive. Between July to September 2017, there was only a one-hour period of downtime on the EE network and one five-hour period on the Three network. For Vodafone and O2, no relevant incidents were observed.