Opensignal Name UK Best 4G and 5G Mobile Networks in Q3 2022
Opensignal has published their biannual September 2022 Mobile Network Experience Report, which measures the 4G and 5G (mobile broadband) services of all four primary network operators – EE, Vodafone, O2 and Three UK – to determine which delivers the best performance. Both EE and Three UK picked up most of the wins.
As usual, this report is based off crowdsourced data gathered from users on hundreds of thousands of devices (Smartphones etc.) between 1st June and 29th August 2022. The results were then processed to reveal how the primary mobile network operators compared across various categories.
The study continues to be predominantly focused upon the combined performance of 4G and 5G networks, but it does also examine the speed of 5G-only connections. Overall, EE once again won most of the performance categories in the primary study, but Three UK is continuing to threaten the status quo.
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Indeed, Three UK does extreme well on the 5G front – scoring an impressive 228.4Mbps for average download speed (up from 204.3Mbps six months ago) and availability of 9.1% (up from 8.7%) – this reflects the % of time that a user spends connected to 5G vs 4G. All of this shows how quickly they’re catching up and harnessing their large blocks of spectrum; after being late to start the rollout.
However, while Three UK may dominate for 5G downloads and availability, the difference is not as clear-cut for other categories like upload speed. The reason for this is that most 5G networks today are still hobbled by existing 4G infrastructure, but that may change once pure end-to-end (standalone) 5G networks start to expand. Otherwise, the key results are summarised below, both for combined networks and those just for 5G.
Download Speed Experience – All Mobile Connections
(April 2022 Result in Brackets)1. EE 44.7Mbps (45Mbps)
2. Three UK 30.7Mbps (28.1Mbps)
3. Vodafone 21.2Mbps (22Mbps)
4. O2 16.8Mbps (17.1Mbps)
Download Speeds – 5G
1. Three UK 228.4Mbps (204.3Mbps)
2. EE 130.5Mbps (129.2Mbps)
3. Vodafone 105.2Mbps (92Mbps)
4. O2 92.3Mbps (100.6Mbps)
Upload Speed Experience – All Mobile Connections
1. EE 9Mbps (9.4Mbps)
2. Vodafone 7.1Mbps (6.9Mbps)
3. Three UK 5.6Mbps (5.9Mbps)
4. O2 4.9Mbps (5.4Mbps)
Upload Speeds – 5G
1. EE 15.9Mbps (14.7Mbps)
2. Three UK 15.1Mbps (14Mbps)
3. Vodafone 14Mbps (13.3Mbps)
4. O2 10Mbps (10.3Mbps)
UK Availability % – All Mobile Connections
1. Three UK 98.5%
2. EE 97.7%
3. Vodafone 96.6%
4. O2 96.2%
UK Availability % – 5G
1. Three UK 9.1% (8.7%)
2. Vodafone 8.5% (8.1%)
3. EE 6.8% (6.9%)
4. O2 5.8% (6%)
Once again, it’s another poor showing from O2 (VMO2), which has yet to capitalise on the benefits of merging with Virgin Media’s fixed broadband line network and is continuing to lag at the bottom of far too many categories.
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However, there are caveats to this sort of study. For example, some operators have better 4G or 5G coverage, lots of spectrum bands and more advanced networks than others. Furthermore, app-based crowdsourced data can also be impacted by any limitations or locations of the devices or plans being used, which at the same time removes the ability to adopt a common type of hardware and environment to help form a solid testing baseline.
Suffice to say that performance testing like this may not always tell the whole story. But Opensignal is one of the better organisations at analysing such data. The result also echoes similar studies from Ookla.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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I don’t know about anyone else, but when test the 02 network recently the speeds we’re Shockingly slow compared to every other network?
They took on the Virgin Mobile subscribers which were previously with Vodafone AFAIK. All 3 million of them…
It’s a good time to switch to Vodafone whose network should be lighter now. 🙂
I only just noticed 02 5G around here – this was on Sky Mobile and it was slow.
So they went from EE to VF to O2? talk about going down hill! – the EE 4G they used to have on VM was the best for most people me included.
Virgin Mobile is still on Vodafone, they have a contract up to 2025
UK Availability % – 5G
1. Three UK 9.1% (8.7%)
2. Vodafone 8.5% (8.1%)
3. EE 6.8% (6.9%)
4. O2 5.8% (6%)
Christ that’s depressing.
100 percentage 5g coverage on all networks in uk 2040
I am just moving from O2 to EE. Constantly either can’t get any data though I have a full signal or might get 1-5mbps, whilst my son standing next to me gets 100mbps on EE.
O2 is so rubbish now probably even worse than Three but they still are offering free EU roaming. So I will stick to them until that will not change.
O2 here is awful to. Still only band 20, and when you try and access the Internet, most of the time nothing happens.
Three have improved considerably in my area now beating EE for indoor coverage at home. There is still some strange activity with being knocked back to 3G occasionally which is annoying but on the whole it’s very usable.
When my contract is up I might switch over.
EE is very good for both 4g and 5g speed. Few reason left few months ago
1. Drains batteries because of bad indoor coverage constantly switching between 5g and 4g.
2. Voice quality is very bad. Most of the time opposite person can’t hear properly and calls drops.
3. Prices expensive and now limit the speed upto 100mbps.
I am with vodafone. Speed is not great like EE but voice calls quality is very good and vodafone Wi-Fi calling calls quality much better than EE.
I was with SKY mobile (O2) for years but last few months service has just plummeted. Data is useless anywhere there is lots if people…(city centres, tourist places, football stadium) calls often break up or drop. It has got worse since VM took over and worse still since they transferred 3 million VM mobile customers onto already clogged network. This isn’t a local thing but across the UK.
I have since switched to Lebara (Vodafone) call quality is superb and data actually works wherever I am .. even in packed stadiums.
O2 have a lot of work to do here I feel as at the moment they are by far the worst of all of them. If yiu had asked me 18 months ago I would have said they were number 1 for call quality at least.
Virgin haven’t moved any customers over to the O2 network, they are still contracted to use Vodafone until 2025.
They have started moving customers from vodafone to O2 whatever you feel about the Vodafone agreement, it is just that. Doesn’t mean it’s fixed and many reports online over the Virgin community have confirmed people complaining about being thrown onto the O2 network in form of roaming.
I can personally confirm as a friend’s Virgin SIM is now on the O2 network.
I moved from Three to EE over a year ago and it was the best thing I did Mobile wise, it works out cheaper if you go on sim only and get the handset separately compared to their 24 month plans, I would say EE 5G network is very inconsistent sometimes its brilliant other times its slower than the 4G network and doesn’t work, coverage is brilliant I hated having full signal on Three and the data never working. Three seem to have a good 5G network but the 4G is awful and it’s going to take a few years before 5G starts to really get going with all networks.
Virgin seem to have found a way to back out of Vodafone agreement. All VM mobile customers will move from Vodafone to o2 between July 1st and September 30th this year.
I always find it werid how Three manage to come out so well in these surveys! Having been a Three customer the last 24 months I can say that living in South East London and regularly commuting around the south of England and Wales that Three’s signal is awful and congested… Often showing full strength connection but very little bandwidth. Ironically I moved my personal device to 02 recently which while slower overall gives me a far me reliable signal in the areas I use it.
Yes, same for me. I cannot understand how Three could score so well. It’s unusable in many central urban areas and even worse when roaming.
“Download speed on Three UK 30.7Mbps”??? WTF?? I barely get 3Mbps at home (living in London) and these guys are pulling these big numbers out of thin air :/
Seriously though, O2 gives me 30Mbps and EE 150Mbps so it’s definitely a Three thing.
Just left O2 after over 10 years; I was seeing 3G MORE than ten years ago! Went to EE and now my data rate on mobile at home has gone from about 4 Mb/s with O2 to about 100 Mb/s with EE