State of Mobile Networks: UK (April2018)Little may have in changed on OpenSignal's awards table in the six months since ourlast look at the U.K.’s mobile market, but we definitely see the U.K., as a whole, movingforward. 4G availability in the country is improving, with two operators now havingpassed the 80% milestone. Meanwhile our regional analysis revealed some interestingextremes, with the capital London racking up both the best and worst overall downloadspeeds. Drawing on 890 million data samples collected by 61,000 OpenSignal usersbetween Dec. 1 and Feb. 28, we put the U.K. under the network microscope,examining the 3G and 4G performance of its four nationwide operators.

Report Facts

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HighlightsThe UK's 4G networks grow up as 3operators approach 80% availabilityThe road to 4G has been relatively slow in the U.K. But access toLTE signals is accelerating. Our measurements show that at theend of February two operators had passed the 80% 4Gavailability milestone – EE with 86.6% and O2 on 83.4% – whileVodafone was on the cusp at 79.5%.

EE continues to dominate the OpenSignal awardstableEE continues to lead in all OpenSignal award categories, winningoutright in 4G speed, 3G speed, overall speed and 4G availability, whilethe operator tied with Vodafone in the 4G and 3G latency categories.These results closely mirrored our winners in our September report, withthe only difference then being that EE shared the 3G speed award with3.

Despite mediocre growth in 4G speeds,some impressive increases in overall speedLTE speeds held relatively steady in the U.K., with no oneoperator showing an increase of more than 1.2 Mbps since ourlast report. However, the steady growth in LTE availability had aknock-on effect on overall download speeds, where our metricsshow the four operators increased their everyday speeds by over2.1 Mbps each.

London had both the best and worst overallspeeds in our testsIn this report we have included our most comprehensive metrics to datefor the U.K.'s 12 regions, including data on 4G speed, availability andlatency, as well as overall speed. In terms of average overall downloadspeed, we measured both the fastest and slowest speeds in London,with EE on 27.4 Mbps and O2 at 8.9 Mbps. Our metrics also show O2customers received the lowest average 4G speeds in the country in theLondon region, at 10.2 Mbps.

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Performance by Metric

Download Speed: 4G

This metric shows the average download speed for eachoperator on LTE connections as measured by OpenSignal users.

Download Speed: 3G

This metric shows the average download speed for eachoperator on 3G connections as measured by OpenSignal users.

Download Speed: OverallThis metric shows the average download speed experienced byOpenSignal users across all of an operator's 3G and 4Gnetworks. Overall speed doesn't just factor in 3G and LTEspeeds, but also the availability of each network technology.Operators with lower LTE availability tend to have lower overallspeeds because their customers spend more time connected toslower 3G networks.

Latency: 4G

This metric shows the average latency for each operator on LTEconnections as measured by OpenSignal users. Latency,measured in milliseconds, is the delay data experiences as itmakes a round trip through the network. A lower score in thismetric is a sign of a more responsive network.

Latency: 3G

This metric shows the average latency for each operator on 3Gconnections as measured by OpenSignal users. Latency,measured in milliseconds, is the delay data experiences as itmakes a round trip through the network. A lower score in thismetric is a sign of a more responsive network.

Availability: 4G

This metric shows the proportion of time OpenSignal users havean LTE connection available to them on each operator’s network.It's a measure of how often users can access a 4G networkrather than a measure of geographic or population coverage.

Regional PerformanceThis chart shows the regional winners in each category OpenSignal measures. Click on the icons to see a more detailed graph showing eachoperator’s metrics in a particular region.

AnalysisCould 2018 be the year the U.K.'s 4G networks finally come of age? The country sawits first commercial LTE network launched back in 2012, but since then rollout hasbeen somewhat sluggish. We are seeing some signs of improvement in our latestanalysis, though, as operators in a short time have made some impressive leaps in4G reach. In the latest test period, two of the U.K.'s operators, EE and O2, hadcrossed the 80% 4G availability milestone, and the average increase across all fouroperators was 8.8 percentage points since our last Mobile Networks Update: UKreport for the country.

For this report, OpenSignal analyzed 890 million measurements collected from 61,121mobile devices between Dec. 1, 2017 and Feb. 28, 2018. We used that data tocompare the 3G and 4G services of the big 4 operators in the U.K. on the nationallevel, and we drilled down into that data on the regional level, examining our 4G andoverall speed, 4G availability and 4G latency metrics in the 12 regions. Let's start firstby examining 4G availability.

4G availability approaches the 80% milestone

Two of the U.K.'s operators have crossed the 80% threshold in our availability metric:EE with 86.6%, up 8 percentage points since our last report in September, and O2with 83.7%, up more than 9 percentage points. The U.K.'s smallest operator 3 alsogrew its 4G availability score by more than 9 percentage points to 66.6% in our tests,while Vodafone grew 8 percentage points to 79.5%.

LTE has taken a while to grow in the U.K. This is due to relatively strong 3G networks,meaning there was less rush to rollout 4G, whilst strong competition and fallingaverage revenue per user (ARPU) have muted investment. 3 recently announced theirannual ARPU in 2017 fell over 6% compared to the previous year, part of a trend thathas been apparent in U.K. telecoms for some years now. But it seems the U.K. mayfinally be shedding its reputation for poor 4G access.

In terms of 4G speed, EE continued to dominate with average download speeds of 29Mbps, followed by 3 with 22.6 Mbps, Vodafone on 20.1 Mbps, and O2 with 15.2Mbps in our measurements. There was little change in these speeds since our lastreport six months ago, with the average increase over all four operators being just0.38%. As is often the case with maturing mobile markets, the U.K's networks arecoming under pressure from increasing numbers of users moving from 3G to 4G,while larger data bundles and unlimited offers are driving consumer dataconsumption.

Nevertheless, in our overall download speed metric, which factors in the combinedspeeds of operators' 3G and 4G networks and the level of access to eachtechnology, the U.K. continued to improve. EE led the pack by a fairly large distance,with average tested speeds of 25.6 Mbps, an increase of 2.5% since our lastreporting period. 3 and Vodafone were neck-and-neck, both on 16.7 Mbps in ourresults, with O2 bringing up the rear with 13.2 Mbps. All the operators had increasedtheir overall download speed results in the past six months, with 3, EE and Vodafoneall seeing boosts close to 2.5%.

EE remains dominant across the regions, but O2 ischallenging

Our latest U.K. report includes measurements on 4G speed, overall speed, and 4Gavailability and latency for the 12 regions in the country. The metrics show that EE islargely dominant across all four categories, but the BT-owned operator faces anotable challenge from O2 in terms of 4G availability in some regions. The Telefónicasubsidiary proved particularly strong in the north and west, tying with EE in the NorthEast, North West, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Yorkshire and Humber forour regional availability awards.

However, in the London region, it's a case of the best of times, the worst of times forthe U.K.'s mobile network users. We recorded the U.K.'s highest 4G availability scoreof 89.1% on EE in London, beating both O2 and Vodafone who had availabilityscores of just over 84%. The city saw both the spring of hope and the winter ofdespair 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 onlymanage 8.8 Mbps in the city. EE won our overall speed awards outright in 11 out of12 of the U.K.'s regions, while it tied with 3 in the North East. The slowest average 4Gspeed we recorded was also in London on O2 at 10.2 Mbps, but the fastest 4Gdownload average in the regions went to 3 in the North East at 31.3 Mbps, accordingto our measurements.

The UK's LTE lags behind on the world stage

In terms of speed, the U.K. fell to mid-table in our latest global State of LTE report.The U.K.'s average 4G speed of 23.1 Mbps was below less developed mobilemarkets such as Armenia and Mexico. Meanwhile the U.K.'s average 4G availabilityof 77.3% landed it higher in our LTE access rankings, though it was still far fromjoining the elite countries such as South Korea, Japan and the U.S. in 4G availability.However, all four U.K. operators have seen significant increases in their availabilitysince our last State of LTE report was published, meaning it's pretty likely the countryscore will improve in our next global LTE study.

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

Despite the recent improvements we have tracked in our metrics, the U.K. regulatorstill doesn't feel operators have gone far enough in their 4G rollout, especially when itcomes to coverage of underserved regions. The latest figures from regulator Ofcom,published in December, show 4G geographical coverage – where a signal is availablefrom all four mobile operators - is currently available across just 43% of the U.K. It isimportant to note that Ofcom's figure refers to geographical coverage, and as suchdoesn't reflect actual user experience. That's a substantially different measure fromour availability metric, which accounts for how often users have access to an LTEsignal no matter where they happen to be.

With one eye on the upcoming 5G spectrum auction, Ofcom is becoming increasinglyvocal about the need for improvement in country's 4G networks. The U.K.'s operatorsneed to maintain investment if they hope to meet this need, and the country hopes tocatch up with its European peers.

Our Methodology

OpenSignal measures the real-world experience ofconsumers on mobile networks as they go abouttheir daily lives. We collect 2 billion individualmeasurements every day from tens of millions ofsmartphones worldwide.

Our measurements are collected at all hours of theday, every day of the year, under conditions ofnormal usage, including inside buildings andoutdoors, in cities and the countryside, andeverywhere in between. By analyzing on-devicemeasurements recorded in the places wheresubscribers actually live, work and travel, we reporton mobile network service the way users trulyexperience it.

We continually adapt our methodology to bestrepresent the changing experience of consumers onmobile networks and, therefore, comparisons of theresults to past reports should be consideredindicative only. For more information on how wecollect and analyze our data, see our methodologypage.

For this particular report, 890,213,316 datapointswere collected from 61,121 users during the period:Dec 1, 2017 - Feb 28, 2018.

For every metric we've calculated statisticalconfidence intervals and plotted them on all of thegraphs. When confidence intervals overlap for acertain metric, our measured results are too close todeclare a winner in a particular category. In thosecases, we show a statistical draw. For this reason,some metrics have multiple operator winners.

©2018 OpenSignal, Inc. All rights reserved.

OpenSignal, Inc retains ownership of this report including all intellectual propertyrights, data, content, graphs & analysis. Reports produced by OpenSignal, Incmay not be quoted, reproduced, distributed, published for any commercialpurpose (including use in advertisements or other promotional content) withoutprior written consent.

Recent United Kingdom Reports

State of Mobile Networks: UKApril 2016

State of Mobile Networks: UKOctober 2016

State of Mobile Networks: UKApril 2017

State of Mobile Networks: UKApril 2018

The trusted global standard formobile experience.Providing real-world, competitive insights from over 20 millionusers of the OpenSignal app.

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Region Download Speed: 4G Download Speed: Overall Latency: 4G Availability: 4G

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