EE Once Again Named London’s Fastest Mobile Broadband Provider

Mobile operator EE has come top in the latest RootMetrics study of Mobile Broadband (3G and 4G) performance for the United Kingdom’s capital city of London, with the operator reporting the fastest median download speed of 25.4Mbps and the fastest uploads of 19.3Mbps. Vodafone was a distant 2nd.

The latest report was based on some 95,636 tests conducted, both indoors and outdoors, between 9th and 23rd April 2015. But as usual RootMetrics have lumped their overall performance scores together, which means we can’t see the performance split between 3G and 4G networks.

Luckily the group also published a separate report last month, which details the 3G and 4G performance split for all of the UK’s major cities (here) and shows that Three UK still does well where older style 3G connectivity is concerned. Otherwise today’s study appears to be based off some of the same data, albeit more tightly focused upon London.

Fastest Median Mobile Download Speeds (London)
1. EE 25.4Mbps
2. Vodafone 10.6Mbps
3. O2 8.7Mbps
4. Three UK 7Mbps

Fastest Median Mobile Upload Speeds (London)
1. EE 19.3Mbps
2. Vodafone 6.9Mbps
3. O2 6.2Mbps
4. Three UK 2.9Mbps

The tests themselves are usually conducted using “unmodified, off-the-shelf devices purchased from operator stores“, although it’s not clear if they used exactly the same kit for each operator. Vodafone has previously criticised the group for allegedly carrying out their testing “in an inconsistent manner” and in a way that “does not appear to follow industry standard practices or is fully impartial“. At the time Rootmetrics countered by saying that their testing was “completely independent“.

The group also rated each operator for performance in terms of several other categories, such as network reliability, call / text performance and some variation on those themes. In terms of Network Reliability, EE scored 96.1 out of 100, while Three UK got 94.7, Vodafone picked up 90.2 and O2 came last on 89.1. Overall EE ended up coming top of everybody (all categories) and Three UK actually came 2nd after they put in a good performance for the other criteria.