RootMetrics Show 4G Coverage in 16 UK Cities by Mobile Operator
RootMetrics has today published another batch of results from their latest study, which reveals the 4G (LTE) network coverage of the United Kingdom’s four primary mobile operators across 16 of the biggest UK cities. EE delivered the best coverage but often only by the narrowest margin.
Generally Vodafone “shared” honours for providing the most coverage in 12 of the 16 metro areas tested, while Three UK was only able to provide comparable 4G coverage levels in just two cities (Liverpool and Manchester). We should point out that Vodafone and O2 have a network sharing agreement, which makes their similar scoring somewhat predictable.
It’s worth comparing the 2018 results with a similar study that was conducted in 2017 (here), which shows just how quickly O2, Vodafone and Three UK have managed to catch up with EE. Even though Three UK clearly still has a bit of extra work left to do.
4G Coverage by Major UK City (%)
| Metro area | EE |
O2 |
Three |
Vodafone | Most coverage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Belfast | 99.60% | 98.70% | 90.90% | 96.70% | EE/O2/Vodafone |
| Birmingham | 100.00% | 96.70% | 94.60% | 98.10% | EE/O2/Vodafone |
| Leeds and Bradford | 99.80% | 97.80% | 91.60% | 97.60% | EE/O2/Vodafone |
| Bristol | 99.30% | 95.10% | 84.40% | 94.90% | EE |
| Cardiff | 99.50% | 86.90% | 83.20% | 87.80% | EE |
| Coventry | 99.80% | 99.20% | 87.90% | 97.10% | EE/O2/Vodafone |
| Edinburgh | 99.60% | 98.00% | 88.40% | 97.20% | EE/O2/Vodafone |
| Glasgow | 98.90% | 95.90% | 91.80% | 97.90% | EE/Vodafone |
| Hull | 100.00% | 94.30% | 86.50% | 96.70% | EE/Vodafone |
| Leicester | 100.00% | 95.10% | 81.80% | 96.00% | EE |
| Liverpool | 99.70% | 95.50% | 97.50% | 98.10% | EE/Three/Vodafone |
| London | 99.40% | 95.40% | 90.80% | 92.80% | EE |
| Manchester | 100.00% | 98.60% | 96.30% | 99.00% | EE/O2/Three/Vodafone |
| Newcastle | 99.70% | 97.00% | 94.30% | 98.70% | EE/O2/Vodafone |
| Nottingham | 100% | 98.90% | 93.60% | 97.00% | EE/O2/Vodafone |
| Sheffield | 100.00% | 98.80% | 93.80% | 97.00% | EE/O2/Vodafone |
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 and Linkedin.
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Three is not surprising.