Three UK Continues to Deliver Fastest 5G Download Speeds
The latest data from Ookla, which runs the popular Speedtest.net service, has revealed that mobile network operator (MNO) Three UK is still beating rivals at Vodafone, O2 (VMO2) and EE (BT) for average median 5G broadband download speeds – scoring 275.85Mbps (Megabits / sec) in Q1 2023. Roughly double their nearest rival.
The operator’s 5G network is currently live at over 4,250 sites (up from 2,200 last year) – reflecting 60% UK outdoor population coverage, which puts them at a similar level to EE’s 5G network. As a result, Three UK’s 5G availability score has also increased from 19.1% in Q1 2022 to 26.4% in Q1 2023 (the UK average for all operators jumped from 14% to 20.7% over that same period).
Much of Three’s success with 5G is down to their spectrum strategy, which has seen them acquire a large amount of frequency across the 3.4-4GHz and 700MHz bands, including a 100MHz+ block of contiguous spectrum. The average data (mobile broadband) usage per customer on their network has also reached 25.1 GigaBytes per month (up from 19GB last year).
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Ookla’s 5G Median UK Download Speeds – Q1 2023
1. Three UK – 275.85Mbps
2. Vodafone UK – 138.90Mbps
3. EE – 111.14Mbps
4. O2 – 70.63Mbps
Sadly, Ookla hasn’t yet provided the latest data for upload speeds and latency times, although since most 5G networks are Non-Standalone (NSA) and rely on some 4G infrastructure, then upload performance generally hasn’t risen too much beyond the previous 4G era.
However, it’s worth noting that Three’s apparent lead in 5G may face some challenges in the near future. Ofcom’s next round of auctions for spectrum in the millimetre wave (mmWave) bands of 26GHz and 40GHz could have an impact, depending upon the outcome and how widely it gets deployed. Three also seems to be trailing on future Standalone 5G (SA) upgrades, which could erode some of their performance lead.
Finally, many people are anticipating that Three UK and Vodafone will announce a £15bn mega-merger in the very near future (here), which could complicate the picture – depending upon how the two networks handle integration, particularly of their physical assets.
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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All very well and kudos to Three for holding onto No1 position where 5G is concerned but they would do well to tackle 5G blackspots in otherwise a 5G available area.
Eg if we imagine a typical donut ring, inside the ring is the 5G blackspot while the rest of the donut has 5G.
So a faster rollout of 5G to cover those blackspots would go along way.
Other than that, in areas where Three are nice enough to provide 5G and sometimes I’m places where their own coverage map says otherwise, they do offer decent speeds and in a number of places easily beat other operators.
As to Mmwave etc, if Three went ahead and brought it to places of large foothall eg shopping centres of a set size, busy public transport facilities, football stadiums and airports etc than it should give them a advantage especially if they were the first to do so.
Problem with mmwave is about half of potential customers (iPhone users) can’t use it because Apple hasn’t included it with EU/UK phones due to lack of provision from the networks. Bit of a catch 22 now. Apple will continue to not provide it until networks do, and networks are now disincentivised from providing it because it’s useless to half their customers.
Build the network eg provide Mmwave 5G coverage and phone builders will come with phones able to support it.
No good relying on phone builders to make first move, it’s like building housing if decent public transport is available than housing becomes more attractive to those interested than waiting for decent public transport.
I have seen EE rolling out their 700mhz 5G in multiple locations in Manchester, Shropshire and North Wales.
It is really improving the coverage in those areas, but of course it being a lower frequency it is causing an interpretation of lower speeds, whereas other network operators do not appear to be doing this rollout as much.
So the question is, do you want slower speeds but more 5G coverage or less coverage but faster 5G? I’d personally go for more 5G coverage.
If we all prefered more 5G coverage than speeds then whats the point of having 5G in the first place?
I quite like Three’s approach – high frequency 5G coverage giving fast speeds and loads of capacity, while also adding 700MHz 4G from the same masts to improve overall coverage.
I think the fact that Three have achieved around the same level of 5G coverage using high frequencies as EE have using low frequencies, shows just how much more effort Three are putting in to their 5G rollout.
I was getting 340Mbps on EE 4G this weekend. Why are 5G speeds so poor?
They are not – if you are in the right area. I can walk to my local bus stop and get 1.3Gbps down on Three at around 2am. Literally 100 yards down the road – yet here I get 6-700 most of the time.
@Gregowski – Many, many reasons – the main ones being capacity and efficiency. For most people speeds are secondary to being able to do what they want when they want to and they care little if their phone is able to do it at 10Mbps or 100Mbps
True but good 4G is more than capable of doing all that. So to me it sounds like the operators are just skipping to the next step and not fixing 4G where it needs to be fixed.
I had 4G broadband myself for over a year on VF and everyone in the family was happy with it, never had any performance issues.
While I welcome the investment mobile operators are making they should firstly be fixing the current issues with 4G networks as that what most users require.
For example in Worthing Three currently have confirmed 4G network issues, on my last test the 4G signal was -72 dBm but the speed is 3.27Mbps down and 2.06Mbps up.
On reporting to Three & SMARTY (I am with the MVNO), they are aware of the issue but won’t tell me a estimated fix date. That’s code for, we are not fixing it but when we upgrade the masts to 5G that will fix it, but still, there is no date from them for that.
I am sure there is something more going on with their Worthing infrastructure we are not party to but hopefully they will fix it soon…..
Where is this magical 5G? Three has no coverage where I need it, and I live in London! So I’m stuck on 1.5Mbps speeds with 4G.
Sorry, a bit off topic. So the Three Vodafone merger is basically a round about way of Vodafone buying the Three network (is this even legit) So why doesnt Three just sell the network to an interested buyer who will run the network as it is right now?