Yes, UK. REST OF EUROPE has better mobe services than you

EE best of a disappointing lot

4G – yes it makes a difference

When it came to data, EE showed its advantage in having rolled out 4G early and having carrier aggregation. While in our Monopoly test we measured the 3G and 4G networks separately, P3 – like Ofcom and all the other tests – didn’t lock onto a technology and allowed calls which failed on 4G to drop back. This improved coverage but skewed the results.

Big City Data

When we spoke to Three, a spokesperson expressed the view that absolute speed isn’t the most important metric. The speed of viewing web pages is important but reliability is more significant than bandwidth, he said. “For us as a business, reliability is a fundamental measure,” he told us.

He also noted upgrades to infrastructure firmware which are currently being rolled out. When you look at the raw speeds you can see that EE pretty much has the territory to itself in the big cities, with download speeds of 17Mbs and upload of 21Mbs. This is down to carrier aggregation which at the time was only available on EE. In areas of lower population, the differences were much less marked.

Data ratings for all locations

We spoke to O2 about the survey, it told us that it was very happy with the result, given that it had only just started rolling out 4G services – although it preferred another survey which rated O2 as the top network and the uSwitch one. An O2 spokesperson said:

“We’re pleased that P3 recognise us as being in the top two for data services. This follows the recent recognition from uSwitch that O2 has the UK’s best network coverage. We continue to invest £1.5 million in our network every single day as we modernise our 2G and 3G networks and roll out 4G in order to deliver faster speeds and greater coverage to enable our customers to become more digital.”