RootMetrics Test Names EE as BEST UK Mobile Network for H2 2024
Mobile benchmarking firm RootMetrics (Ookla) has today published their H2 2024 study of UK mobile networks (calls, texts etc.) and mobile broadband performance, which once again sees EE (BT) continuing to win all the award categories, followed by Vodafone and Three UK. But O2 (Virgin Media) found itself at the bottom of the table.
The new study made use of the “latest” 5G Samsung smartphones (model not disclosed) – purchased off the shelf from operator stores – to test both 4G and 5G performance across all four primary operators in 16 of the UK’s most populated metro cities. The team then conducted a total of over 627,000 tests, including at hundreds of different locations (787 of which were indoor) and while driving a total of 23,000 miles during the day and night.
The results shown below have then been split into several categories (network reliability, speed, data, call and text quality etc.) and each is assigned a score out of 100 (higher numbers = better). In terms of the UK-wide results, EE came top in every single category. By comparison, O2 echoed their results in other studies by coming bottom of all the same categories.
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Otherwise, most of the mobile network operators saw a small to modest increase in their overall scores this time around, with Vodafone seeing the strongest rise to 85.3 out of 100 (up from 79.1 in the H1 2024 study) – enough to leapfrog over Three UK and take second position. On the flip side, Three UK was the only operator to record a decline in their score to 81.2 (down from 83.2).
Overall Scores for H2 2024 (vs H1 2024)
1. EE – 91.7 (up from 91.5)
2. Vodafone – 85.3 (up sharply from 79.1)
3. Three UK – 81.2 (down from 83.2)
4. O2 – 76.7 (up from 75.3)
In terms of the average (median) UK download speeds on both 4G and 5G networks combined – EE delivered the strongest data speeds of 89.9Mbps (up strongly from 79.8Mbps in the last report), while Vodafone returned 49.9Mbps (up from 42.8Mbps), Three UK came next on 44.9Mbps (up slightly from 44.5Mbps) and, despite being at the bottom, O2 still saw a nice improvement to hit 29Mbps (up from 23.3Mbps).
The study also gave us a look at mobile broadband download speeds for 5G-only connections, which once again found that EE delivered the fastest median average of 231.5Mbps (up from 207.5Mbps), while Three UK came next on 220.1Mbps (up from 210.3Mbps), then Vodafone on 206.6Mbps (up from 184.9Mbps), and finally we have O2 pushing just 82.8Mbps (up from 79.7Mbps).
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Finally, RootMetrics gives us a limited look at the current levels of 5G availability (i.e. time spent connected to a 5G service), which found that EE, Three UK, and O2 all topped 61% 5G availability during UK-wide testing, while Vodafone trailed at 48.3%. For perspective, no operator offered 5G availability above 60% a year ago in 2H 2023, reflecting continuous improvements by the operators to expand their 5G services.
The table below shows where each operator made its biggest increase to 5G availability during testing in major UK cities during the second half of 2024.
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The RootMetrics’ report only provides bits and pieces of selected information, while we would have preferred to see a bit more detail (e.g. upload performance and latency, as well as a split by each nation). The data also seems to be dominated by an urban focus, which gives little weighting for poorer performance in rural areas. But that is often the caveat with this type of scientific, albeit very manual, testing – there’s not enough data to give a full UK picture.
RootMetrics UK Mobile Performance Review H2 2024
https://www.ookla.com/../rootmetrics-uk-state-of-mobile-union-2h-2024
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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EE has always been a good network for speed, reliability. Unfortunatley they charge very high contract amounts, Luckily the MVNO’s are a great alternative.
Good to see Vodafone’s score on the up, they are brilliant in my area. I would use EE if it was better in my area.
O2 have some real issues with speeds. Is it due to the number of people on the network and congestion? How many customers does each network (including MVNOs) does each network have in the uk?
I beg to differ. After four years on EE, one month on Vodkafone was enough to conclude their network is far superior. I commented on the possible reasons couple weeks ago when there was yet another ‘EE tops speedtests’ article…
Why are they no longer testing Hull and East Yorkshire?
In London O2 is best
You must be joking. O2 scores bottom on every measurable scale. They have more spots they underwhelm in than they outperform even just one of the other networks.
O2 are just playing it safe, no over-investing and bare minimum “actionable metrics”. People who uses O2 nowadays are either not tech savvy or just likes their branding and pricing. I’m not against O2 consumers but at the same time, i’ve never heard anyone joining O2 for any high speed or stable network related reason.