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EE has been named the best mobile operator in the UK for the 10th time in an annual study assessing network coverage.

According to engineering consultancy Umlaut, EE has the best coverage and data rates in both big cities and smaller towns, and along the UK’s transport network, including road and rail. The results show EE coming out on top in almost every metric tested, with the other networks Virgin Media O2 (VMO2), Vodafone and Three vying for second place depending on the test.

Since the merger between Virgin Media and O2 in June 2021, VMO2 is the biggest mobile operator in the UK, with around 45 million mobile connections, with EE servicing around 26 million customers. Vodafone and Three are in third and fourth place.

But despite VMO2’s size, its network infrastructure was ranked last in the study, even though significant improvements were noted over the past year. Vodafone, the network ranked second in terms of coverage, equalled EE when it comes to voice and call coverage in major...

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  • From personal perspectives I can agree. Having been a subscriber of both, the network coverage of VMO2 is poor, with many areas (even in the M25 area) of 3G or even E (GPRS) coverage, and even where 4G and 5G coverage is available, data rates are awfully low and inconsistent. But they have some of the best contract deals.

    EE has great coverage, with most places being 4G or 5G, however it does suffer similarly with poor consistency of data rates. They have some of the most expensive contract deals.

    Some could say, you get what you pay for.

    The wider issue however is that the coverage and performance of both of these parties, is quite substandard compared to those in other countries such as the Netherlands. I wonder how much of that is down to the regulatory requirements - where in the Netherlands you have to achieve 8Mbps of speed consistently on actual testing to be able to mark it as being covered by 5G/4G.

    Relative performance is great, but there is a deep need for absolute performance improvements. The direct result though will be higher contract prices and that is fine as long as it is commensurate with the performance improvement.

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  • From personal perspectives I can agree. Having been a subscriber of both, the network coverage of VMO2 is poor, with many areas (even in the M25 area) of 3G or even E (GPRS) coverage, and even where 4G and 5G coverage is available, data rates are awfully low and inconsistent. But they have some of the best contract deals.

    EE has great coverage, with most places being 4G or 5G, however it does suffer similarly with poor consistency of data rates. They have some of the most expensive contract deals.

    Some could say, you get what you pay for.

    The wider issue however is that the coverage and performance of both of these parties, is quite substandard compared to those in other countries such as the Netherlands. I wonder how much of that is down to the regulatory requirements - where in the Netherlands you have to achieve 8Mbps of speed consistently on actual testing to be able to mark it as being covered by 5G/4G.

    Relative performance is great, but there is a deep need for absolute performance improvements. The direct result though will be higher contract prices and that is fine as long as it is commensurate with the performance improvement.

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