Network provider Vodafone ranked as UK's worst by mobile performance study
Vodafone has been ranked the UK’s worst mobile network by a RootMetrics study of the four major providers, which saw 920,000 system tests take place during the first half of 2014.
Vodafone was deemed the worst major UK mobile network
The Rootmetrics report, which rated each operator across a range of 100 categories including ‘overall performance’, ‘call performance’, ‘mobile internet’, ‘text’, ‘network reliability’ and ‘network speed’, concluded that the UK mobile market is a “two-horse race”.
EE and Three scored 85.5 and 82.7 respectively - leagues ahead of third and fourth placed O2 (68.1) and Vodafone (67.0).
The two leading firms also had the most reliable 4G internet connections on average across the country. Nonetheless, all four networks showed strong results in call and text services despite EE’s overall dominance.
The report will come as a serious blow to Vodafone after it was also called the UK's worst network operator by Ofcom.
On the test methodology, the RoomMetrics study said: “During our testing in the first half of 2014, we drove more than 25,000 miles while testing performance in towns, villages, and cities across the UK. To put that in perspective, that’s the equivalent of driving from Land’s End to John o’ Groats 28 times.
“Since you use your mobile in a variety of conditions, we tested performance while driving, at stationary outdoor locations, and at more than 1,200 indoor locations. All told, we collected more than 920,000 total samples.”
This comes after research from the Internet Advertising Bureau on Tuesday morning showed that only 38 per cent of the top 50 UK tech and telecoms brands optimise paid search for mobile.