nPerf study names EE best for 4G and 5G mobile coverage in the UK
France-based benchmarking firm nPerf has today published the results from a new study they conducted into 4G and 5G mobile (mobile broadband) coverage across the United Kingdom, which found that EE delivered the best reach for both network technologies. The results took account of both population and geographic network coverage.
The study is based off data gathered from masses of mobile internet connection tests carried out during 2026 by users of the mobile speed testing tools on both nPerf’s website and via their dedicated mobile testing apps for Android and iOS. Crucially the coverage score this returned represented a combination of both population coverage and geographic (landmass) network coverage (both are also displayed separately).
Overall EE returned a combined 4G coverage score of 96.50%, which dropped to 77.02% for 5G connections. By comparison the weakest mobile network for 4G coverage was found to be Vodafone on 92.50% and they also came last for 5G connections too on just 37.48%. Both O2 and Three UK were much more middle of the road, which is interesting given how Three and Vodafone are slowly merging their networks closer together.
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As a side note, Northern Ireland was also found to offer the best 5G coverage (48.2%), while Wales delivered the the lowest (40.3%), but we didn’t get the results for Scotland and England.
Best UK Operator for 5G Mobile Network Coverage
Best UK Operator for 4G Mobile Network Coverage
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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No surprise for me on my own testing. EE consistently the best in the areas I travel around.
Me too.
Had to get rid of EE because the signal was poor everywhere I went in the end EE let me go with no charge even though I had twelve months contract left . How they get to be best is beyond me I think it’s all down to marketing.
They usually score the best because on high frequency bands they clock the highest speeds. But coverage is crap as they have nothing going on the low band.
Final straw for me was that in two years they couldn’t be bothered to get VoLTE to work abroad.
Now I’m with Vodafone and much happier. Not the fastest network, nor the cheapest, and don’t even get me started on their CS, but it works more often than not…
I’ve found EE to be brilliant anywhere I’ve been. I’ve had work sims on both O2 and Vodafone with some disappointing results in Scotland and the North of England where I now currently live.
The number of times I’ve had to use my EE line to either hot spot or make a call when either O2/VF have struggled to sometimes even go above EDGE at points was wild. On the whole in cities I’d say all would be on a similar par, but some stark differences as soon as you’re anywhere else.
I’m genuinely interested to see what the VF/3 tie up is going to look like and what improvements to ‘The Nation’s Network’ brings and what EE can further bring to the table to keep ahead 🙂
Just got rid of EE, I dont know how ppl say its the best network as I had nothing but issues with them..
Anything from random call drops, No Internet, even thoe I had full signal and 5G, To Total network cut offs, with messages coming up saying ” device not registered on network ”
Constantly having to restart my phone just to get on their network again.. Now bare in mind im running an 24 ultra from EE on a 36 month contract paying £84, ive swopped sim twice, tried a different phone for a few months and still the issues persist.
EE are absolutely shocking..
Ive since gone back to 02 and now dont seem to be having an issue finally.
Company I work for had moved everyone over to EE for both phone & mobile broadband. After a couple of months of failed calls, poor network performance plus often unable to get online, IT dept moved both my devices back to Vodafone.
I’ve recently got a ee full works sim with Xbox game pass at £31 as have ee broadband. Before that I was with Mozillion but since going with ee direct I’m genuinely finding calls are better since getting access to 5g+ and 5g calling seems more reliable. I think I might stay with them direct and get rid of my Mozillion sim which runs on same network but not as consistent as the ee sim direct. I think I will get a cheap Lebara e sim for Vodafone coverage but do find EE direct seems worth it.
If they are the best then we are screwed.
I have not been on the EE netwqork for a long time, the last time was a fair few years ago when I used Plusnet mobile and it was not great. I realise that things have changed since then, but seeing my brother a few weeks ago walking around a pub carpark to get a decent signal makes me wonder if it has.
To be honest, all our networks have issues and n ow we are down to Three of them and I hate all three. in different ways and for different reasons. So I will stick with Smarty that is cheap and cheerful and still seem to work, b ut not as good as it did since Voadarubbish took over three.