# Report: EE is the best mobile network



## editor (Apr 5, 2018)

Read all about it here: State of Mobile Networks: UK - OpenSignal

For Londoners: 



> However, in the London region, it's a case of the best of times, the worst of times for the U.K.'s mobile network users. We recorded the U.K.'s highest 4G availability score of 89.1% on EE in London, beating both O2 and Vodafone who had availability scores of just over 84%. The city saw both the spring of hope and the winter of despair in speed. London claimed the fastest average overall speeds in the U.K. according to our measurements, at 27.4 Mbps on EE's network, while O2 could only manage 8.8 Mbps in the city. EE won our overall speed awards outright in 11 out of 12 of the U.K.'s regions, while it tied with 3 in the North East. The slowest average 4G speed we recorded was also in London on O2 at 10.2 Mbps, but the fastest 4G download average in the regions went to 3 in the North East at 31.3 Mbps, according to our measurements.



But the UK is pretty shit overall:



> The U.K.'s 4G networks may be improving, but the country has some way to go before it catches up with its European neighbours. The U.K. came in 29th out of 36 European countries in our 4G download speed metric in a recent analysis of European 4G performance, and 19th in terms of 4G availability – fairly disappointing placings for the country ranked 23rd most wealthy in the world in the latest IMF GDP rankings.


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## skyscraper101 (Apr 13, 2018)

EE seem to be the best for performance as I've long expected. They also do visual voicemail on iPhone and are the only company who do cellular service on the Apple Watch.

They don't even mention Three in the London figures, but my experience was pretty underwhelming - and only slightly better than GiffGaff which was awful for speed and dead spots. Especially in central London.

Since moving to Vodafone I've barely had any data dropout and a far superior performance.


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## Slo-mo (Apr 24, 2018)

"The slowest average 4G speed we recorded was also in London on O2 at 10.2 Mbps"

That's actually pretty fast, in terms of anything you are likely to want to do with your phone. It's certainly plenty enough to stream video, for example. 

It only might be an issue if you are using it as a landline substitute as your main broadband connection.

But for mobile use, how much more speed do we need?


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## bemused (Apr 24, 2018)

I'm on virgin's service which I believe is EE and it is fucking awful. I get a very poor connection in my home because I live at the top of a hill, when I was on vodafone they sold me a signal booster - worked great. EE do these but Virgin don't - no idea why not. I was in Amsterdam last week and whenever someone called my number they got a message saying the number was unreachable - although the mobile data worked fine.


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## ATOMIC SUPLEX (Apr 24, 2018)

I had no problems with EE apart from tarrifs I didn't want.
I'm on 02 now and it's sooo shit.
I got my phone along with one for my daughter so that she could walk to school and contact me when she arrives safely. One in three times the service is down and neither of us can get through to each other. Also, they have no shitting provider in Japan.


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## Slo-mo (Apr 24, 2018)

That's quite a big omission. Are you saying O2 phones don't work in Japan at all?

Not somewhere I want to go myself,but I'll bet a fair few British people do go there on business or pleasure...


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## 2hats (Apr 24, 2018)

As ever, get a free SIM from each major network for your target phone and test the signal/performance in every area you frequent. There are too many variables otherwise (even with the same network given the variation in handsets and antenna positioning, performance, etc).

IME EE have the best overall geographical coverage across the UK but there are other factors (eg overpriced packages lacking features I need, customer service, etc) that lead me to avoid them (the coverage is irrelevant if I am rarely in those places where they are but others aren’t, or if I frequently find myself in one of the small holes in their network, or all the places I frequent are equally well covered by another network operator).


Slo-mo said:


> That's quite a big omission. Are you saying O2 phones don't work in Japan at all?


Japan (and ROK) 3G networks are CDMA based only (there are some old CDMA networks in a few other places, eg typically some rural US locations, Uzbekistan, etc). So handsets that only support GSM (used almost everywhere else in the world and particularly Europe) won’t work with 3G there. You need a multi-band handset that supports CDMA in the 2100MHz band at the very least (though CDMA at 800 and 1700 MHz are supported to some extent). If you have a recent 4G LTE based phone that supports the right bands (800, 2100 MHz) then it should (theoretically) work where there is coverage. Alternatively rent a handset on arrival and stick your SIM in it (or get a local SIM as well).


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## cybershot (Apr 24, 2018)

Vodaphone remain the worst, apparently.

Vodafone rated worst mobile phone provider


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## Slo-mo (Apr 24, 2018)

cybershot said:


> Vodaphone remain the worst, apparently.
> 
> Vodafone rated worst mobile phone provider


Interesting to see Utility Warehouse rank so high. Does anyone here use them?


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## Borp (Apr 27, 2018)

I'm on three and it seems to me 4g has slowed down quite a bit. In fact the whole network. When it first came out it seemed much better than now.
I'm currently getting 60kb/s standing in a spot that a few years ago had decent signal.


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## skyscraper101 (Dec 19, 2019)

Just switched to EE a week ago. I can confirm - with experience of Giffgaff (O2), Three, Vodafone, and SMARTY (Three) all in the last 5 years - that they have the best signal and speed I've experienced across multiple London locations. Vodafone were close - which seems in line with that report - but had some annoying black spots and don't seem to be offering many attractive data focused deals.

I'd certainly recommend EE if you're pretty data hungry and rely on speed. They're not the cheapest sure (I bagged a Black Friday offer with a discount code to justify it), Three/SMARTY have cheaper deals with large/unlimited data offerings and no 12/18 month commitment, but the speed and reliability on EE is absolutely worth it. I've probably wasted hours just waiting for things to load with other networks, not to mention the regular dropouts from Facetime/Whatsapp calls.


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## skyscraper101 (Dec 19, 2019)

Just now. Pretty decent.


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## moomoo (Dec 19, 2019)

I am on EE and have very little phone signal at home. It’s bloody marvellous!


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## farmerbarleymow (Dec 19, 2019)

I'm on EE and the figures are nowhere near as high. But its more than fast enough for my purposes.


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## UnderAnOpenSky (Dec 23, 2019)

Yes, been with them for a long time. It's certainly good enough to make me nervous of swapping. 

Managed to take my others halfs phone away with me when working (woops) which was on O2. Signal was shocking in comparison.


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## ChrisC (Mar 5, 2020)

I'm on EE on the top floor of a block flats and I get at least 200MB on a good day on 4G. I live in Southend on Sea.


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## platinumsage (Aug 6, 2020)

I am about to take the plunge with a SIM-only plan: 80GB/month, unlimited calls, 24 month contract £20/month

Does this sound reasonable? 24 months is a long time so I hope everyone is right about them being good...


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## quimcunx (Aug 6, 2020)

Streatham used to be a bit of a signal black spot for me for many years but I dont think it is now. I was and am on ee.


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## purenarcotic (Aug 6, 2020)

Virgin piggyback off EE (I used to be EE, switched to Virgin because they were offering an unlimited everything new year deal) and I haven’t noticed any change in signal / it’s got wide ranging coverage.


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## existentialist (Aug 6, 2020)

purenarcotic said:


> Virgin piggyback off EE (I used to be EE, switched to Virgin because they were offering an unlimited everything new year deal) and I haven’t noticed any change in signal / it’s got wide ranging coverage.


Plusnet Mobile do, too.

I had been a happy(ish) customer of EE, via its predecessor, for a good 20 years or so, then decided to go for an upgrade and contract renewal. It may just be because I'm a Grumpy Old Bastard now, but when I went to the EE Shop to collect my bit of novel shininess, it was very much all a vibe of "how dare your interrupt our skateboarding and man-bun tweaking with your boring expectations of customer service". The machine to scan my licence (to verify ID) wasn't working, they clearly weren't bothered and asked me to come back with "better ID". So I told them to shove their upgrade, and send it back - I'd be cancelling my EE account. They seemed perplexed...but unbothered. I was not best pleased.

So if it's quality service you're looking for, don't set your expectations too high.

I should say that there was then a flurry of anxious/urgent emails and calls from EE, but by then I'd crossed some kind of line, and didn't want to know. So I'm on a SIM-only contract with PlusNet, and I'll replace my current phone with an unlocked one when it finally expires.


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## MBV (Aug 20, 2020)

Just signed up to Virgin (EE) after a price rise email from Three. Cue a text offering a better deal from Three a couple of hours later.


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## Sasaferrato (Aug 20, 2020)

skyscraper101 said:


> EE seem to be the best for performance as I've long expected. They also do visual voicemail on iPhone and are the only company who do cellular service on the Apple Watch.
> 
> They don't even mention Three in the London figures, but my experience was pretty underwhelming - and only slightly better than GiffGaff which was awful for speed and dead spots. Especially in central London.
> 
> Since moving to Vodafone I've barely had any data dropout and a far superior performance.


Tis giffgaff we have, never had the slightest problem. We are voice an text only though, we don't use data.


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## Bahnhof Strasse (Aug 20, 2020)

EE were the first to offer Wi-Fi calling, we holiday in deepest Devon each year with no hint of a phone signal, so being able to take and make calls via Wi-Fi was great and I signed up straight away, works brilliantly imagine the others offer it now, but have stuck with EE ever since.


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## Numbers (Aug 20, 2020)

Double dropping the E here too.
Never had a problem with them, never use my data allocation (even before lockdown) and have never had loss of service.

I use one of them payg £15 monthly bundles.


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## Roadkill (Aug 21, 2020)

I can't grumble about EE.  Been with them since I got my first contract phone in 2001.  For a while I was paying too much, but then I threatened to leave unless they undercut a GiffGaff deal similar to what I had by what I thought was an unrealistically long way, and to my surprise they agreed.  The coverage is at least as good as any other mobile network and the speed is quite good enough for what I need, and the customer service is good too IME.


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## BristolEcho (Aug 21, 2020)

For my two pence O2 have always seen me well. I sometimes think about switching to 3, but I've always had good service away with O2 and generally find their customer service has been decent. I've been with them 13 years I think and I'm not one to stay with one company normally.  Worked for them for a bit and they were alright then too.

Currently paying £15 per month for a 15gb contract which is under what I use so it's alright I reckon. Their contract prices are pretty high though which is why I'm sim only at the moment and my current phone is fine. (Though I would really like a new one deep down.)


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