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Our users observed the best experience when using mobile voice apps such as WhatsApp, Skype, Facebook Messenger on Vodafone and EE’s networks. This was the first time that Vodafone has not won the Voice App Experience award outright since we added this award to our U.K. mobile network experience reports in October 2019. However, when it comes to the overall experience observed by our 5G users across all generations of mobile technology (Voice App Experience – 5G Users), our O2 and Vodafone 5G users reported the best experience, due to statistically tied scores.
EE continues to be far ahead of its rivals when it comes to the average download and upload speeds observed by our users. EE clocked up a score of 44 Mbps for Download Speed Experience — 18.8 Mbps (74.5%) faster than second-placed 3’s score of 25.2 Mbps. Similarly, the operator impressed with a score of 9.7 Mbps for Upload Speed Experience, giving it a lead of 2.3 Mbps (31.3%) over second-placed Vodafone. In addition our 5G users saw their fastest overall speeds on EE, with scores of 109.5 Mbps for Download Speed Experience – 5G Users and 12.5 Mbps for Upload Speed Experience – 5G Users.
The statistical tie between EE and Vodafone for the Games Experience Award has carried over from our last report. This means that our EE and Vodafone users observed the best overall experience when playing multiplayer mobile games over cellular connections. The last time the Games Experience award was won outright by a U.K. operator was in our October 2020 report, when EE was the victor and Vodafone was in second place.
EE has once again scooped the lion’s share of our awards — successfully defending its five outright wins from our previous report — Video Experience, Download Speed Experience, Upload Speed Experience, 4G Availability and 4G Coverage Experience — along with its joint win with Vodafone for Games Experience. In addition, this time around EE statistically ties with the previous sole winner Vodafone on Voice App Experience and so the two operators are joint winners for this award. Vodafone is the only other operator not to come home empty-handed, with two joint wins.
In this report we examine the mobile network experience of the four main mobile network operators in the U.K.: 3, EE, O2 and Vodafone, over a period of 90 days starting June 1, 2021 and ending August 29, 2021, to see how they fared. We have used 5G measurements in addition to those from previous generations of mobile network technology when determining the overall scores for each award. Also, we have published a companion report — United Kingdom 5G Experience Report — which analyzes the experience of our 5G users when connected to 5G.
While our awards table is relatively unchanged from our last report, much has happened since then in the U.K. mobile market. Vodafone announced in early September that it has refarmed 10 MHz of its 900 MHz spectrum from 3G to 4G and has deployed this contiguous block across multiple sites in London, with more to follow. Meanwhile, BT, the owner of EE, announced in July that it will phase its customers off 3G by 2023, with 3G use representing less than 2% of the data traffic over EE’s network. In the same year, BT is seeking to launch a new 5G core network control system.
Finally, in early June the merger between between O2 and Virgin Media closed, creating a company that has a substantial presence in both the fixed line and mobile markets. While Virgin Media is an MVNO — in addition to its broadband offering — it currently uses Vodafone’s mobile network and has a deal with the mobile operator until 2026. The combined new company is seeking to compete more strongly with BT/EE, which similarly combined a fixed and mobile offering back in January 2016.
| Mobile Experience Awards, United Kingdom | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
September 2021,
United Kingdom Report
|
3
3
|
E
EE
|
O
O2
|
V
Vodafone
|
Video Experience
|
||||
Games Experience
|
||||
Voice App Experience
|
||||
Download Speed Experience
|
||||
Upload Speed Experience
|
||||
4G Availability
|
||||
4G Coverage Experience
|
||||
|
Mobile Experience Awards Winners
|
September 2021, United Kingdom
|
|---|---|
|
Video Experience
|
E
EE
|
|
Download Speed Experience
|
E
EE
|
|
Upload Speed Experience
|
E
EE
|
|
4G Availability
|
E
EE
|
|
4G Coverage Experience
|
E
EE
|
|
Mobile Experience Awards Draws
|
September 2021, United Kingdom
|
|---|---|
|
Games Experience
|
E
EE
V
Vodafone
|
|
Voice App Experience
|
E
EE
V
Vodafone
|
|
Video Experience Additional Metrics |
3
3
|
E
EE
|
O
O2
|
V
Vodafone
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | ||||
|
Video Experience – 5G Users
|
72.8 (± 0.60) | 75.6 (± 0.43) | 74.5 (± 0.67) | 71.2 (± 0.57) |
| Video Experience – 5G Users | in 0-100 points |
|
3
3
|
73 (± 0.60) |
|
E
EE
|
76 (± 0.43) |
|
O
O2
|
74 (± 0.67) |
|
V
Vodafone
|
71 (± 0.57) |
|
Games Experience Additional Metrics |
3
3
|
E
EE
|
O
O2
|
V
Vodafone
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | ||||
|
Games Experience – 5G Users
|
65.5 (± 0.93) | 68.7 (± 0.83) | 70.9 (± 1.04) | 72.3 (± 0.85) |
| Games Experience – 5G Users | in 0-100 points |
|
3
3
|
66 (± 0.93) |
|
E
EE
|
69 (± 0.83) |
|
O
O2
|
71 (± 1.04) |
|
V
Vodafone
|
72 (± 0.85) |
|
Voice App Experience Additional Metrics |
3
3
|
E
EE
|
O
O2
|
V
Vodafone
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| in 0-100 points | ||||
|
Voice App Experience – 5G Users
|
78.7 (± 0.34) | 79.2 (± 0.31) | 79.8 (± 0.38) | 80.1 (± 0.32) |
| Voice App Experience – 5G Users | in 0-100 points |
|
3
3
|
79 (± 0.34) |
|
E
EE
|
79 (± 0.31) |
|
O
O2
|
80 (± 0.38) |
|
V
Vodafone
|
80 (± 0.32) |
|
Download Speed Experience Additional Metrics |
3
3
|
E
EE
|
O
O2
|
V
Vodafone
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | ||||
|
Download Speed Experience – 5G Users
|
80.2 (± 1.55) | 109.5 (± 1.71) | 91.2 (± 2.27) | 59.1 (± 1.59) |
| Download Speed Experience – 5G Users | in Mbps |
|
3
3
|
80 (± 1.55) |
|
E
EE
|
110 (± 1.71) |
|
O
O2
|
91 (± 2.27) |
|
V
Vodafone
|
59 (± 1.59) |
|
Upload Speed Experience Additional Metrics |
3
3
|
E
EE
|
O
O2
|
V
Vodafone
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| in Mbps | ||||
|
Upload Speed Experience – 5G Users
|
9.8 (± 0.24) | 12.5 (± 0.27) | 8.4 (± 0.27) | 10.8 (± 0.30) |
| Upload Speed Experience – 5G Users | in Mbps |
|
3
3
|
10 (± 0.24) |
|
E
EE
|
12 (± 0.27) |
|
O
O2
|
8 (± 0.27) |
|
V
Vodafone
|
11 (± 0.30) |
Collecting billions of individual measurements daily from over 100 million devices globally, Opensignal independently analyzes mobile user experience on every major network operator around the globe.
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