At last we know for sure. Blighty's 'best mobile network' is ...

We’ll give you a clue. It’s not O2, Vodafone, or Three

The 4G legacy

The legacy of EE having 4G spectrum ahead of the other networks is shown in it having the best speeds around the country and in metro areas. Three, which was second to launch on 4G, was second in network speed but has now been overtaken by Vodafone, thanks to the red blob's “Project Spring”, an aggressive roll-out of 4G.

Vodafone has in the past said this would be even quicker if the UK's planning laws were not so antiquated. RootMetrics flags Vodafone as “the operator to watch".

“EE is continuing to come out on top for mobile performance, but there is a heated – and often close – battle with the other operators,” said Smith. “We want consumers and network operators to look at this report and use it to inform purchasing decisions and understand the areas where improvements can be made.”

One issue with the RootMetrics measurements is that they don’t look at voice quality, so a call that connects but where both people give up because they cannot hear one another clearly is regarded as being “successful”.

EE's standout performance was only slightly marred by the increase in the number of “call blocks” – the times when it proved impossible to make a call.

RootMetrics tests download speeds with a 600MB file of a television programme. It found that EE gave its fastest speed in Belfast, a median of 35.7Mbps, whereas in London its speed was 25.4Mbps.

In terms of median download speeds, O2 was fastest in Edinburgh at 13.9Mbps, with London coming in at 8.7Mbps. Three ran to 9.5Mbps in Bristol and 7.0Mbps in London, with Vodafone clocking 14.9Mbps in Edinburgh and 10.6Mbps in London.

Smith told The Register that he was surprised London wasn’t the fastest location. We asked him if he concurred with the view of testing organisation P3 that the UK was the poor man of Europe in mobile coverage, but Smith explained that the format of the RootMetrics test is to compare the UK networks in like-for-like circumstances simultaneously. It does not produce data which would allow country-to-country comparisons.

A Vodafone spokesman said: "Our customers across the country are now benefiting from clear improvements in their service, including more consistent download speeds, more reliable voice calling and far fewer dropped calls, and we are working hard to improve that further this year.”

The full report can be found here. ®