Ofcom confirms EE is the fastest mobile network
Internet speed tests carried out by Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, have shown that EE is the fastest network.
The tests were carried out at the end of last year on the four main operators, and features that were assessed included the speed of downloading files and the smoothness of online video streaming. EE and rivals O2, Three and Vodafone were all assessed by the regulator as part of the study, and coverage in cities such as London, Cardiff, Liverpool, Norwich and Edinburgh was examined. All of the locations have 4G services available.
Ofcom also took the opportunity last November and December to measure the performance of services while the user is driving and walking. The average speed of EE’s 4G services was found to be 20Mbps. That measure of speed can allow the downloading of a 10MB file in just a few seconds.
The average speed offered by O2 was 10Mbps, and the company did suffer in comparison to its rivals. However, it claimed that the results could have been affected by maintenance work that was being carried out on its network.
The study also discovered that 98% of calls across all networks connected successfully and that there was only a problem with websites loading on 2% of occasions with EE. For O2, this figure was 11%. O2 was only able to offer a speed of more than 2Mbps 69% of the time, while this figure was 92% for EE. However, O2 is unconcerned, stating that the report does highlight “some good performance” within the network.
These findings appear to back up Ookla’s latest Speedtest results in which EE came out on top. Ookla – the global standard in internet speed testing – found EE’s 4G network to be 50% faster than any other in the UK, with Vodafone coming in second place, followed by Three and O2 respectively.