The regulator assessed all four operators for 4G speeds in seven major cities
EE has come above O2, Vodafone and Three for 4G download speeds across various major UK areas in Ofcom’s latest Smartphone Cities report published today (December 16).
The tests were conducted between July and October this year across seven UK cities; Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, London, Sheffield and Southampton. These cities were chosen as they receive 4G coverage from all operators. It assessed each network on download speeds, web browsing times, upload speeds, call quality and call success rates.
EE beat all three rival operators for average download speed in each city. It averaged 30Mbps across every city, coming at a peak 41Mbps in Birmingham. Vodafone was the only other operator who managed to hit 30Mbps, which was in Birmingham. O2 had the lowest speed of 8Mbps in London.
Upload speeds also saw EE ranked fastest across all seven cities. Speeds never fell below 24Mbps, whilst none of the other three operators exceeded upload speeds of 20Mbps. O2 had the slowest speeds of 9Mbps in London.
A statement in the report read: “Download speeds matter because they determine how long consumers have to wait before getting the content on their device. Higher download speeds are particularly important for downloading larger files, such as films or apps.
For the best consumer experience, getting fast download speeds consistently matters as well as the speeds themselves. The distribution of download speeds gives an indication of this, as does the time-of-day analysis presented later in the report.”
