Ofcom Says EE Most Reliable UK Network

Ofcom's latest piece of research on mobile phone call quality has just been published, ranking the major UK networks in terms of their ability to connect calls.

The communications watchdog used data provided by RootMetrics to evaluate each operator's call quality level, and found that EE came top, with 97 per cent of calls successfully connected.

O2 came second on 95.3 per cent, followed by Three on 94.5 per cent, with Vodafone bringing up the rear on 92.6 per cent. All data on calls was taken from the second half of 2013.

So there's a clear winner in EE, with two middling performers, and Vodafone's percentage leaves it clearly bottom, and isn't far off failing to connect one in ten calls on average. Of course, bear in mind that depending on your local area, your mileage may well vary...

Ofcom's study also showed that, naturally enough, calls made in rural areas where signal is weaker were more likely to fail (in this case, EE was still top with 93.7 per cent, and Vodafone remained in last place on 79.9 per cent).

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The watchdog body also spoke to consumers directly about their experience with mobile providers, and found that generally speaking, levels of satisfaction were high, with 76 per cent indicating they're satisfied. The figure was higher in urban areas at 78 per cent, and lower in rural locations at 67 per cent – but a majority were still happy campers.

Over half of the people Ofcom surveyed, 55 per cent, said they "never" or "hardly ever" had no mobile signal, but 30 per cent complained that they suffered such issues at least once per week.

Ofcom is planning to publish a report later this year which will compare both 3G and 4G mobile broadband speeds as measured in five major UK cities – and that will certainly make for interesting reading, particularly the latter.