Root Metrics August update Birmingham, Leicester, Coventry

Thine WonkThine Wonk Posts: 17,190
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Leicester - http://www.rootmetrics.com/uk/compare-operators/united-kingdom/leicester/leicester-august-2013/
Birmingham - http://www.rootmetrics.com/uk/compare-operators/united-kingdom/birmingham-uk/birmingham-august-2013/
Coventry - http://www.rootmetrics.com/uk/compare-operators/united-kingdom/coventry/coventry-august-2013/

  • Vodafone bottom of the pile again - 7.5% of calls failing in Britain's 2nd city and the slowest download speeds in all 3 cities.
  • Three and EE fastest average download speeds in all 3 cities
  • Very strong call performance stats for O2 across the board.
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Comments

  • sethpetsethpet Posts: 497
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    The vodafone results might be due to cells being off air for 4G upgrades maybe.

    seems strange that they would drop away over a few months
  • Thine WonkThine Wonk Posts: 17,190
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    sethpet wrote: »
    The vodafone results might be due to cells being off air for 4G upgrades maybe.

    seems strange that they would drop away over a few months

    Months ago they had 8% call failures in Cardiff. It's nothing new, if you look back through the reports from many months ago Vodafone has come bottom in most of them.
  • sethpetsethpet Posts: 497
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    but looking at those links its fallen away in that same location since may, has to be a reason for that.
  • Thine WonkThine Wonk Posts: 17,190
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    sethpet wrote: »
    but looking at those links its fallen away in that same location since may, has to be a reason for that.

    As an average of 1000s of tests throughout the area if they had upgraded masts and backhaul you'd have thought the average would be better?

    Vodafone has got worse in a lot of areas. Pretty much every Report Vodafone is always last, just pick some random ones and you'll see what I mean. Bristol for example - last, Cardiff - last, Nottingham - last...
  • sethpetsethpet Posts: 497
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    Having a google and found this.

    However, Vodafone dismissed the research as "flawed" and "laughable", arguing that the full methodology has not been shared and that several "obvious inconsistencies" are present.

    http://www.cable.co.uk/news/vodafone-slams-flawed-mobile-broadband-speed-research-801596318/
  • Thine WonkThine Wonk Posts: 17,190
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    I guess Vodafone also disagreed with BBC Watchdog. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mg74/features/no-mobile-reception-difficult-to-leave-contract I'd recommend watching the small video where they quote Vodafone as saying "the network simply can't cope with the number of people making calls and downloading data in the city" that's a direct quote the BBC says.

    Or maybe they want to argue about this PC Advisor test which they came out as performing very badly too.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzKQI2VsFLs#at=19
  • lee18xxlee18xx Posts: 2,971
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    How can EE be compared for speed when it's the only network with a 4G network when compared with , say, O2 which hasn't? Surely it's not a level playing field.
  • Thine WonkThine Wonk Posts: 17,190
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    lee18xx wrote: »
    How can EE be compared for speed when it's the only network with a 4G network when compared with , say, O2 which hasn't? Surely it's not a level playing field.

    It's not, but if you discount EE then you see what the other networks perform like. It will be a level playing field soon as all 4 will have 4G.

    What I am saying though is every other network performed better in the 3 locations tested in August for download speeds, Vodafone came last. Also they have an incredibly high call failure rate, 7.5% in Britain's 2nd city is terrible.
  • lee18xxlee18xx Posts: 2,971
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    Thine Wonk wrote: »
    It's not, but if you discount EE then you see what the other networks perform like. It will be a level playing field soon as all 4 will have 4G.

    What I am saying though is every other network performed better in the 3 locations tested in August for download speeds, Vodafone came last. Also they have an incredibly high call failure rate, 7.5% in Britain's 2nd city is terrible.

    Terrible. Agree. Perhaps They should have tested EE for 3G for the time being to give us a better picture.
  • jabbamk1jabbamk1 Posts: 8,942
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    I have to agree it'd be better if they split EE4G and EE3G services.

    It'd give a much more realistic look at each networks performance compared to each other. At the moment EE's data services are ranked top in every city and that's purely down to their 4G service.
  • DevonBlokeDevonBloke Posts: 6,835
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    EE's 3G will perform roughly the same as Three's. Maybe slightly worse as Three have more 3G spectrum but at the end of the day Vodafone do seem to have major calls issues. This, as Thine said, has been going on for ages. It's not a new thing.
    I think Lucan mentioned a couple of times that a lot of Vodafone's kit is really really old. Like 90s old. They just haven't kept up. They didn't see the data revolution coming and were caught out. Simple as that.
  • heskethbangheskethbang Posts: 4,280
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    My woes with Voda are well documented on this forum, and the latest report is consistent with my experience of them here in Brum.
  • Everything GoesEverything Goes Posts: 12,972
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    Thine Wonk wrote: »
    I guess Vodafone also disagreed with BBC Watchdog. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mg74/features/no-mobile-reception-difficult-to-leave-contract I'd recommend watching the small video where they quote Vodafone as saying "the network simply can't cope with the number of people making calls and downloading data in the city" that's a direct quote the BBC says.

    Or maybe they want to argue about this PC Advisor test which they came out as performing very badly too.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzKQI2VsFLs#at=19

    O2 did really badly in the PC Advisor tests :eek:

    I wasn't surprised. It will spend most of its time on 2G :D
  • sethpetsethpet Posts: 497
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    I must be very lucky then as i don't have any issues on Vodafone.
  • The Lord LucanThe Lord Lucan Posts: 5,054
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    Voda can bitch away if they like. Rootmetrics used the same phones for Three & EE so they still came last to them. The MBNL network which was tested via Three and on the same phone still beat it in every way so testing EE's 3G isn't a big issue as 95% of the time EE3G network would be using MBNL!

    It would be interesting to see if O2 would still be so high up using the same phone as the others... and i'm not sure why they used another just for O2. I've put this to them before with no real answer.
    sethpet wrote: »
    The vodafone results might be due to cells being off air for 4G upgrades maybe.

    seems strange that they would drop away over a few months

    It would be mirrored by O2 surely (equipment share etc).. but it isn't. It is more that the others which have improved and then Voda slipping slightly.
  • The Lord LucanThe Lord Lucan Posts: 5,054
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    DevonBloke wrote: »
    EE's 3G will perform roughly the same as Three's. Maybe slightly worse as Three have more 3G spectrum

    Three have more 3G spectrum? :eek: I'm sure EE just found some spare down the back of the sofa..

    Rogue Orange masts would probably make it slightly slower overall than Three even with the slightly higher coverage which EE has.. thanks to those same creaky buggers.

    My company iPad used to be on Voda.. every time i was in London it was a basically a Wifi only device!!
  • unouno Posts: 973
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    I was discussing these Root metric results with future brother in law who I have to admit is a Vodafone employee network operations manager..

    He said that Root metrics keep going back to the same cities like Leicester,Birmingham,Coventry,Cardiff,London etc as they all have good EE 4G coverage and guess what EE also pay Root metrics a lot of money to have the full detailed results including all the app user tests which has all the signal levels,exact locations and speeds. They also pay to license the logos and use their results in PR.

    I am not sure if this is correct but does seem very possible and i do wonder why they have gone back to the same places so soon around 3 months later rather than moving onto new cities like Northampton,Bournemouth,Norwich,Plymouth,Ipswich,Aberdeen,Swindon and others all large cities but none have EE 4G coverage so I feel there may be something in these claims
  • DevonBlokeDevonBloke Posts: 6,835
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    Three have more 3G spectrum? :eek: I'm sure EE just found some spare down the back of the sofa..

    Rogue Orange masts would probably make it slightly slower overall than Three even with the slightly higher coverage which EE has.. thanks to those same creaky buggers.

    My company iPad used to be on Voda.. every time i was in London it was a basically a Wifi only device!!

    I will not post on forums after drinking whiskey....
    I will not post on forums after drinking whiskey....
    I will not post on forums after drinking whiskey....
    I will not post on forums after drinking whiskey....
    I will not post on forums after drinking whiskey....
    I will not post on forums after drinking whiskey....

    Just doing my lines..

    What do I know?? Nothing, that's what!
    I appear to be living 10 years ago.
    Sorry, you are of course correct. EE have s**t loads more than anyone else.
    :)
  • DevonBlokeDevonBloke Posts: 6,835
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    Lucan, any idea when EE are going to get round to upgrading these 2G Orange masts? Is it the case that they will now do them at the same time as the LTE upgrades?
    That's what I'm guessing.
    Would make sense I guess.
  • jabbamk1jabbamk1 Posts: 8,942
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    uno wrote: »
    I was discussing these Root metric results with future brother in law who is a Vodafone employee network operations manager..

    He said that Root metrics keep going back to the same cities as they all have good EE 4G coverage and guess what EE also pay Root metrics a lot of money to have the full detailed result. They also pay to license the logos and use their results in PR.

    Yes... that must be it....

    :D

    na, it's possible. But then Vodafone haven;t exactly been great according to anyone recently.
  • exterraexterra Posts: 159
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    Unfortunately for Vodafone you can also see the end-user sourced signal and data speeds on the root metrics website - which unsurprisingly also show their coverage is poor. Vodafone would be best off quitting their gripes and sorting out their network issues - telling end users their isn't a problem when there clearly is suggests they have not even accepted there is a problem that needs solving.
  • Thine WonkThine Wonk Posts: 17,190
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    uno wrote: »
    I was discussing these Root metric results with future brother in law who I have to admit is a Vodafone employee network operations manager..

    He said that Root metrics keep going back to the same cities like Leicester,Birmingham,Coventry,Cardiff,London etc as they all have good EE 4G coverage and guess what EE also pay Root metrics a lot of money to have the full detailed results including all the app user tests which has all the signal levels,exact locations and speeds. They also pay to license the logos and use their results in PR.

    I am not sure if this is correct but does seem very possible and i do wonder why they have gone back to the same places so soon around 3 months later rather than moving onto new cities like Northampton,Bournemouth,Norwich,Plymouth,Ipswich,Aberdeen,Swindon and others all large cities but none have EE 4G coverage so I feel there may be something in these claims

    Regardless of which cities they visit more often because a paying client requests it, the methodology and the results would be the same. It's a big US research company, they wouldn't ruin their reputation by altering the results. If a company believes in wrongdoing they can request a court order to get the raw data and prepare a legal case, but I think it's just sour grapes from Vodafone, especially when you look at the BBC Watchdog and the PC Advisor results.

    You can't make up call failure rates out of nowhere and 7.5% in britain's 2nd city is truly an embarrassment, especially as it's an average, so at peak time it could be much worse (if it's low in the middle of the night).
  • sethpetsethpet Posts: 497
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    Have read elsewhere that Root Metrics are longtime partners with 3 and more recently EE are a customer of theirs, which coincides with when they started comparing apples with pears (4G v 3G)

    does rather throw their credibility into doubt
  • jabbamk1jabbamk1 Posts: 8,942
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    sethpet wrote: »
    Have read elsewhere that Root Metrics are longtime partners with 3 and more recently EE are a customer of theirs, which coincides with when they started compaing apples with pairs (4G v 3G)

    does rather throw their credibility into doubt

    I guess all those other independent survey groups must have been paid off by EE as well... :yawn:
  • Thine WonkThine Wonk Posts: 17,190
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    sethpet wrote: »
    Have read elsewhere that Root Metrics are longtime partners with 3 and more recently EE are a customer of theirs, which coincides with when they started comparing apples with pears (4G v 3G)

    does rather throw their credibility into doubt

    Link us to this reliable source then?
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