Best for mobile internet and top overall in London since April 2013
EE has maintained its lead as the top performing mobile operator in London, according to RootMetrics, the standard for independent mobile network performance measurement. EE has ranked first in overall mobile network performance in the capital city since April 2013.
RootMetrics conducted 95,636 tests in London around the clock, indoors, outdoors, and whilst driving 2,448 miles to show consumers how the mobile networks perform in real world situations.
The overall RootScores bring together results from mobile internet, call, and text testing using smartphones purchased off the shelf from operator stores. The RootScores show how reliably and quickly each network performed across all the ways that phones are used: EE 94.8; Three 90.4; Vodafone 88.6; and O2 87.7.
EE came top for mobile internet performance, a position it has held since April 2013 despite the growing footprint of competing 4G services. It also finished first in the RootMetrics speed index, which brings together results from mobile internet and text tests.
The operator recorded the fastest median download speed in the capital at 25.4 Mbps and the fastest upload speed at 19.3 Mbps. At these speeds, it would take just two seconds to email a photo or download a song, and just four seconds to upload a video on EE.
Also, EE was the only mobile operator offering faster median download speeds than the average UK broadband speed, which Ofcom reports is 22.8 Mbps. The other major operators recorded median download speeds of 10.6 Mbps (Vodafone), 8.7 Mbps (O2), and 7.0 Mbps (Three), and upload speeds of 6.9 Mbps (Vodafone), 6.2 Mbps (O2) and 2.9 Mbps (Three).
EE completed its sweep of award wins among all performance categories, coming out top for text performance and tying with Three for call performance. O2 fell back to joint-third from joint-first for call performance since the last RootMetrics round of testing in the second half of 2014, with its rate of blocked calls increasing from 1.2% to 2.0%.
Bill Moore, CEO and president at RootMetrics, said: “RootMetrics’ scouters drove thousands of miles to create the most comprehensive view of mobile performance in London ever delivered. It is clear that EE remains very strong in the UK’s capital city. The network won every category and has stayed ahead of the competition consistently over the past couple of years. With all networks now offering 4G services, consumers have never had more choice between networks and we hope this data will help inform their choices when selecting a network.”