topic Re: Opensignal 4G coverage report in Discussions & Feedback

Opensignal 4G coverage report

gmarkj — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 21:54:58 GMT

Opensignal have released their latest network experience report, and it's mixed results for o2.
Despite improving on several fronts, they were well behind EE on most scores.
Link to the report (and the website I fpund it on):
https://5g.co.uk/news/ee-best-mobile-experience-report/5066/

Re: Opensignal 4G coverage report

Cleoriff — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 07:23:41 GMT

Thanks for that @gmarkj

So O2 and 3 weren't the winner of anything!!

EE looks to be the Lewis Hamilton of the networks with their 5 ~~world championships~~ awards.

Blimey!

Re: Opensignal 4G coverage report

sheepdog — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 10:43:00 GMT

Re: Opensignal 4G coverage report

Cleoriff — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 11:29:30 GMT

@sheepdog wrote:

However, I shall pop in an EE sim card this week and check if they've managed to actually get a signal to my area without it being blown away by a gust of wind.

Please let us know how you get on @sheepdog

Re: Opensignal 4G coverage report

Anonymous — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 13:05:38 GMT

I’ve tried a few networks recently before deciding where to pitch my tent and I’ve found EE to be the best for signal & speed. I live in the Midlands and move around rural & urban every week.

Vodafone were great at home & rurally but no signal in town at all. (Customer service dire)
O2 had slower speeds and fewer bars of signal but little to no signal rurally. (trying get a number ported across was disastrous)
Three were great at home and in town but no signal at all out in the sticks. (Foreign customer service unable to solve basic problems)

But EE seems to be great everywhere. In town I’m getting 60-70mb on a good day & 20-30 on a bad one. Out in the sticks it’s a lot slower but still 1-2 bars.

It was great advice from a member of this forum to try each network before picking..

Re: Opensignal 4G coverage report

Projectionist — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 14:46:43 GMT

I've found this OFCOM site to be pretty accurate - certainly more honest than network provider coverage checkers https://checker.ofcom.org.uk/mobile-coverage

That said, my feeling is that 4G & 5G is the emperor's new trousers - we're all led to believe in its wonder and majesty, but I've yet to find anything I use that 3G is too slow for, so 4G isn't enabled on my phone any more. Battery seems to last longer now though...

Re: Opensignal 4G coverage report

jonsie — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 15:34:59 GMT

EE are by far, very far, the better network in my experience and I've had a O2 account for over 20 years. When it comes to tethering the laptop my EE account is twice as fast as O2. Streaming on Netflix on my TV is near impossible with my O2 account.

Re: Opensignal 4G coverage report

sheepdog — Sun, 27 Oct 2019 22:47:21 GMT

Well just to update you on my EE coverage. I managed to put £10 on a PAYG. Even though I did it online, it took a long time to get a signal and the confirmation text as the signal quality wasn't good even outdoors. Contrary to what the EE coverage page says (4 of 5 bars of 4G) it hasn't improved since then (10 days) even with the phone next to the window! Also: no wind

3's coverage checker says no 4G or 3G in my area so I'll try that next to prove it

Re: Opensignal 4G coverage report

jonsie — Sun, 27 Oct 2019 23:49:55 GMT

I think you need your own satellite @sheepdog

Re: Opensignal 4G coverage report

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 12:45:10 GMT

I can sit inside my mums (in the sticks) with 3 bars & get 2-3 mb, stand outside and it’s back to 20.

The bars of signal has always confused me.. it’s not a great indicator..

Re: Opensignal 4G coverage report

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 20:44:19 GMT

It is also worth remembering that EE have the lion's share of spectrum and their network is actually the product of two companies' 26+ years of site acquitision and build whose founding shareholders all had very deep pockets (Orange was Hutchison's first proper foray into the UK mobile market as while they owned Rabbit, I don't think you could really call that a mobile on the basis you could only call out and had to be near a base to use it) and One2One had Mercury and several US backers too and then both became subsidiaries of national carriers with huge international operations.

O2, or rather Cellnet as was at the time of course had a security company and BT behind it and only really started to become bigger when it was floated.

No contest really.

Re: Opensignal 4G coverage report

pgn — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 20:33:56 GMT

And the latest one fares worse:

https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2026/01/ee-wins-big-in-opensignal-study-of-best-4g-and-5g-uk-mobile-networks.html

We’ve summarised some of the key results below.

Download Speed Experience – All Mobile Connections
1. EE 53.2Mbps
2. Three UK 51Mbps
3. Vodafone 37.5Mbps
4. O2 32.8Mbps

Download Speeds – 5G
1. Three UK 187Mbps
2. Vodafone 130.9Mbps
3. EE 92.2Mbps
4. O2 89.9Mbps

Upload Speed Experience – All Mobile Connections
1. EE 10.4Mbps
2. Three UK 9.3Mbps
3. Vodafone 7.4Mbps
4. O2 6.4Mbps

Upload Speeds – 5G
1. Three UK 20.2Mbps
2. EE 16Mbps
3. Vodafone 14.1Mbps
4. O2 11Mbps

Time on Network %
(what proportion of time people have a network connection)
1. Three UK 99.4%
2. EE 99%
3. O2 98%
4. Vodafone 97%

UK 5G Availability %
1. EE 77.4%
2. O2 57%
3. Three UK 38.9%
4. Vodafone 29.6%

Re: Opensignal 4G coverage report

Enlli — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 21:04:32 GMT

5G is a funny one as 5G SA is only available on top tier on some networks and not at all on most MVNOs

Much O2 SA is low band and not that much better than good 4g+