EE Has Best London 4G But Three & Vodafone Come Close

EE’s stranglehold on the title for best mobile network in London is loosening as Three and Vodafone closed the gap in the capital over the past few months.

According to network testing firm RootMetrics, EE has been the best in London since the first half of 2013 when it overtook Three’s advanced 3G. EE benefited from the merger of T-Mobile and Orange and the launch of the UK’s first 4G service.

Since then, the BT-owned operator’s dominance has not been challenged –until now.

London 4G

RootMetrics gives each operator a ‘Rootscore’ out of 100. This takes into account different factors such as speed, reliability, calls and data, with the most important criteria weighted more heavily.

EE is still number 1 with a score of 95.6, ahead of Vodafone on 94.3, Three on 93.8 and O2 on 91.6. Vodafone and Three tied with Vodafone in the reliability category while Three and Vodafone shared the call category. EE and O2 led the way in texts.

However EE still has a significant advantage in speed and data, unsurprising given it has the country’s biggest 4G network and has made several upgrades over the past few months.

Separate studies by both RootMetrics and crowdsourced testers OpenSignal have suggested Londoners are worse off for mobile coverage than other parts of the UK despite the capital’s importance for business.

All operators have invested in London, most recently O2, but because of the challenging urban environment and high population, the task can be more difficult than elsewhere. In RootMetrics’ table, London came 13 out of 16 UK conurbations.

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