Indeed. That doesn't mean that the random locations are not distributed to match the general population, e.g if 90% of the population is in the city, then 90% of the random locations will be within the city.

O2 & Vodafone should have near blanket 3G coverage of the areas covered by Root Metrics. I find it hilarious that in 2013 ( andwith just over a year to go until 4G will be fairly blanket in the UK with one operator) and after both O2 & Voda being kicked in the nads by Ofcom for it that anyone can be defending them. O2 & Voda should be heavily covering the area tested with fairly new tech.. it is pathetic they are not.

EE & Three are leagues ahead in Glasgow & Edinburgh.

Also can you supply me with a Speedtest link from O2 in Glasgow as i'm yet to see one above 30. (not being a D... just never seen one!)

I don't use the Speedtest.net app because it has historically given me consistently poorer results but I do use the crowdsourced Sensorly app. If you go on Sensorly you can publicly see all the speedtests I've done around Edinburgh. I seem to be the only one doing them at the moment so you'll be able to get a pretty good guess of where I live and where I've been solely from the coverage map :-/ [Edit] The "You are here" arrow probably doesn't help.

http://www.sensorly.com/map/4G/GB/Gr...10#q=EH9%201EF

Note that the online map doesn't show speedtest results, you have to use the phone app for that - but that should take you to the right area.

Here's what it should look like:
http://qasdfdsaq.com/images/sensorly...6-17-30-22.png
Here's a speedtest result:
http://qasdfdsaq.com/images/sensorly...3-18-24-23.png
And here's the cellsite details the test was done on:
http://qasdfdsaq.com/images/sensorly...3-18-23-43.png

As for 3G coverage around Edinburgh and Glasgow - you remember those are mostly rural areas right? Even EE/3 don't have blanket coverage according to their own coverage maps, which we all know to be ... er... "optimistic". The population density is still extremely low - it might be relatively high for Scotland but remember the entire country of Scotland combined has a population 40% lower than just London on its own.

Doesn't mean they are either. Given how meticulous they have been about describing other aspects of their methodology in detail I'd have expected something as significant as that to have actually been mentioned.