EE Named Best Operator in Connect’s 2022 UK Mobile Network Test
Connect and Umlaut have today published their annual UK Mobile Network Test study, which used a range of different benchmarks to test 4G (voice and data / broadband) and 5G service performance across 19 cities, 40 towns and along over 10,000km of major roads. Overall, EE managed to come top again.
Both of the study’s drive tests and walk tests were this year conducted between 9th and 26th November 2022 using both Samsung Galaxy S21+ and S22+ Smartphones for each operator. Additionally, some of the walk test teams visited several cities and travelled on trains between them. The test area accounts for 17.4 million people, or approximately 26% of the total population of the United Kingdom.
On top of that, the company also harnessed crowdsourced data – collected over 24 weeks between May and November 2022. A total of 2626 million test samples were collected from mobile phone users in the UK, which were conducted via various Smartphone apps with a special background diagnosis process.
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Overall, EE came top in both the data and crowd categories, scoring 878 out of 1,000 points (up from 864 last year), while Vodafone got 775 (down from 820), Three UK came third with 756 (up from 739) and O2 (VMO2) sat at the bottom again on just 676 (down from 715) points. Put another way, only EE and Three UK improved their scores this year.
Sadly, the benchmark’s focus on urban areas means we don’t really get a proper picture of rural performance.
Crowdsourced Study in Detail
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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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The only part of this I do not agree with – and I’m sure many others would also feel the same… is that EE is terrible for voice/calling both quality and performance.
Yep that’s why I left them, the amount of time I’d get towards a known EE transmitter and it wouldn’t hand over and cut the call with no signal, before jumping back to full signal was just well, annoying!
Yes.
You are right. I have mentioned this issues many times with EE and they don’t care.
Especially during rain. Even EE WIFI-CALL quality very bad. I left few months ago and now with Vodafone.
Vodafone speed not good as EE but voice calls quality is excellent.
If Three 5G is available in your area, go with them, otherwise go EE.
I’m quite lucky in the city where I am because EE, Voda, O2 and 3 all have coverage.
My issue with EE is that coverage outside is fine where I am, but indoor coverage is ropey as hell – even where the checkers say its excellent. Three is even worse. O2 and Vodafone on the other hand always work. There’s something to be said for the low MHz spectrum they were given way back when.
I do wonder if these tests would get a very different result if they were more real world and, say, they tested signal in the local shopping centre, bowling alley etc. rather than just driving and walking around.
I know the article says they use data from apps, but these are likely to be skewed in quite a few cases by the numbers of people who have the apps installed and their provider (for example the proportion of O2 customers in NI greatly outweighs that of other providers)
Around here Vodafone and O2 are very slow due to network being over congested with speeds barely useable at times, Three is just better but not by much while EE offers superb network coverage and speeds which is why I went back to the EE network using 1pMobile because the Vofafone experience was so bad after 3 years on the main EE network as I thought I give Vodafone a try.
Call quality is pretty good with EE so no complaints there but than again I suppose every area is different, no surprise tho that EE do well in those surveys as they tend to invest in infrastructure unlike Vodafone and O2, Three invests but mostly on their 5G product.
I like EE but it’s becoming to expensive! It maybe the best or fastest, but it’s not worth the extra price point in my opinion.
I’m only interested in a network actually working rather than speed.
Not sure who to go with next though. O2 is beyond slow here although they have just put a 5G mast nearby here. Not sure if that would change their performance though. Three is good but I’m waiting to see about the Vodafone/Three merger before deciding.
You could always go with VOXI/Smarty as they provide the exact same service just on no contract
EE is only expensive if you’re silly enough to pay their advertised prices. You can get some decent deals through haggling (usually through their retentions team).
Or you could go with 1p mobile, then again some people will still go with EE because they’re too scared to try something which is a main brand.
EE have been unable to supply a decent service to the entire EH30 postcode for the past five months yet still charge full contract price unless you can spend up to an hour on the phone (landline because they can’t maintain a signal) and explain what is going on you may get a discount.You will also be told it will be fixed by the end of the month, I was first told this in August. Certainly not the UK’s BEST network, false advertising and breach of contract with thousands of customers in EH30
The reason for this is because the mast had to be relocated due to the new housing being built. A temporary mast was put up but because residents thought it was an eyesore and complained it was taken down.
The new mast has been built but there has lots of issues with it and frustratingly it’s still not functional.
If the temporary mast was still there, we would not be having these issues
I have had discount every month off my bill no problems and they couldn’t have been nicer and more apologetic about it.
O2 dead last again! Absolute joke of a network!
I have noticed when I call someone on EE from my EE phone its as clear as day! Yet when I call someone on another network for example my parents both on Virgin its shockingly bad quality. Does HD Voice only work to the same network or is EE just really bad at this stuff?
It’ll be the 2megabit interconnect links between the Other Licenced Operators, they are not well maintained for sure, very few experienced engineers left who know how that gizmo works. Also has a very low SLA.
Urban areas… easy win when you’re hogging more than half the spectrum in the mid bands…
We need Vodafone and Three to merge…
The result would be better coverage than EE, as well as tons of low band, mid band, and high band 5G spectrum. Even allowing for giving O2 some spectrum, the result would be a spectacular network.
No we don’t need Three and O2 to merge. There’s already too few actual networks in the UK!
@Me Yet most countries worldwide seem to cope with just three operators so I fail to see why its such a problem for the UK except for the excuse well the UK has to have four operators for competition purposes yet again that’s not a problem for many countries around the world.
Personally I think three networks consisting of VodaThree, VMO2 and BT would mean better network performance as bandwidth is being shared three ways vice 4 or 5 ways, investing is more attractive as you’re more likely to see a return on it and you will still have competition as you have the choice of the three operators or countless virtual operators.
If only EE would provide reliable coverage to smaller towns and villages (including the one I live in – 3/O2/VF all work fine and 3 even has 5G), as well as stop hiding rural masts in deep tree banks, they might actually work everywhere and be a viable alternative to Vodafone/O2/Three!
And regarding the comment about EE hogging mid band spectrum… we desperately need the 3/VF merger, which would then result in an operator with tons of 2100/1400 spectrum and could challenge EE for speed.
I never trust results like this, I’m sure they used a proper method, but somehow the reality on the ground is always different. Three’s 4G service (which I last used about a year ago), is absolutely abysmal during the day in any big city. Anywhere in London, you get at most 1 mbps down, at peak hours usually less. Between 2 – 6 AM you may get about 20 mbps. I switched to Lebara (Vodafone) and I was suddenly getting 40-50 mbps down routinely, and 20 mbps during busiest times. That’s all on 4G.
To be fair, Three’s 5G speeds are very good (if you’re within range of 5G service), but their 4G is comically bad, I would say almost unusable in bigger cities. So… do your own research and testing. These results will have you believe that Three has better speeds than Vodafone. Maybe on the 5G network, but on the 4G network in London, NOT even close, it’s a 20x delta at minimum.