RootMetrics: EE and Vodafone pull further ahead of the pack

Rootmetric by IHS Markit has in its Review of the Mobile Landscape 1H 2019 reported that EE has the UK’s best performing mobile network, with Vodafone in second place, Three in third place and O2 bringing up the rear.

This pattern held true across UK-wide RootScores for overall performance, reliability, speed, data and calls, but in the case of text, EE and Vodafone were tied for first place and O2 beat Three for third place.

EE’s aggregate median download speed of 37.6 Mbps across the entirety of the UK was the fastest among all operators (Vodafone: 21.7 Mbps, Three: 13.6 Mbps, O2: 11.1 Mbps). EE delivered median download speeds of at least 30 Mbps in 15 metro areas compared to the 11 seen in the previous round of testing (2H 2018). It also recorded speeds faster than 40 Mbps in four of those 15 markets.

However, EE was beaten by Vodafone in terms of the fastest download speed observed, hitting a fastest median download speed of 45.7 Mbps in Birmingham, compared to the 51.7 Mbps seen with Vodafone in Liverpool.

One key factor that was responsible for several of the report’s observations is improved performance from EE and Vodafone, which made O2 and Three rank lower in some areas than before, despite no decrease in their networks’ performance. For example, in the second half of 2018, EE and Three shared the UK Call RootScore Award, but this time EE won it outright.