GWS Names the Best Mobile Operators for 37 UK Cities in 2021

Global Wireless Solutions has today published the results of their annual (2021) study of mobile network (4G and 5G) performance (broadband speeds etc.) across 37 UK cities, which concludes that O2 is the “most reliable network” – performing best in 18 of 37 cities, towns, and motorways tested, followed by EE, Vodafone and Three UK.

GWS states that their engineers conducted a total of 1.2 million data and voice task tests (described as “controlled scientific network testing“) – via iOS and Android devices (using the GWS OneMeasure App) – in order to evaluate mobile network performance across the United Kingdom (on both 4G and, for the first time, 5G networks). In addition, they also conducted some quantitative online consumer polling with Censuswide (between October and December 2020).

The survey found that, even during the lockdown, some 39% of O2 customers were always satisfied with their network’s reliability, compared to 33% of EE customers, 31% of Vodafone customers and just 30% of Three UK’s customers. Similarly, 84% of O2’s customers are happy with their mobile broadband speeds at home, as are 78% of EE customers, and 82% of Three UK and Vodafone customers.

Consumers also have high expectations about the on-going rollout of ultrafast 5G networks, with 38% believing that faster 5G deployments could help improve the economic recovery after the pandemic. Additionally, 26% believe that it could help fix the problem of the digital divide around the country (debatable given the spectrum limits of rural connectivity, where achieving wide coverage is cost preferable to faster speeds).

Key Findings of the GWS 2021 Mobile Study

— Average speeds during network capacity stress tests where 5G is delivered are 150 Mbps across all operators, compared with 33Mbps in areas where there is no 5G present.

— Success rates for tasks completed with 5G were well over 99% across all operators.

— A 5G signal was found to be available across 37% of the markets tested by GWS, but results show that it is only being delivered to 5G-enabled handsets 20% of the time.

— GWS discovered that in order to achieve a baseline of 100Mbps average network speed throughout an entire market, operators must first achieve around 40% coverage via 5G in that market. This baseline occurred in only 7 out of the 32 cities and towns tested (and in each instance only one operator in each city reached the baseline).

— Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool, London and Manchester all recorded average overall speeds in excess of 100Mbps on any operator, with Vodafone accounting for four of these values and EE for three. And as 5G coverage expands, faster speeds are more likely to be consistently achieved. For example, in Belfast, EE achieved overall speeds of 102Mbps with 5G coverage of 41%, whereas in Manchester, Vodafone recorded an average overall throughput of 166Mbps with coverage of 70%.

— GWS found that 5G signal is, on average, available 40% of the time in UK cities, 16% in towns, and 11% on motorways, while at the same time the network is completing tasks on 5G just 23% of the time in cities, 8% in towns, and only 5% of the time along motorways.

In terms of overall network reliability, O2 earns the title of the UK’s Most Reliable Network for the third year running, ranking top in 18 out of 37 locations tested. O2 is also the most reliable on the UK’s major motorways – M1, M6, M25 and M62. The operator is followed in the overall rankings by EE, which has wins in 16 locations, and Vodafone with wins in 3 locations, while Three UK has no wins.

We should point out that this is one of the few benchmarks where O2 comes top (EE and Vodafone are normally the ones battling over the top spot in other studies).

GWS OneScore Reliability Winners by Market