As hinted at last week, the results have now been published for the P3 Mobile Benchmark. This is a new regular independent survey from P3 who have been conducting well respected tests in Germany for a number of years.

Overall Results (out of 500)
EE: 366
Three: 316
O2: 283
Vodafone: 280

Telephony (out of 190)
Three: 153
EE: 140
Vodafone: 94
O2: 84

Data Services (out of 310)
EE: 226
O2: 199:
Vodafone: 186
Three: 163


Summary comments for each network from the report:

EE achieved the “best in test” seal thanks to a dominant data performance combined with a reliable and well managed voice network. But there is potential for improvement in web browsing and data performance outside urban areas. For EE to defend its number 1 position, some extra attention to voice services could give it a valuable score boost for next year.

Three finished in second place, with the best voice performance in the test. Had it not trailed the field in data, though, it could have put a lot more pressure on EE. Once its data challenges are solved, we can expect much more from Three.

O2 delivered well in data with the second best result, but has a lot of scope to improve its scores in voice. It was not far behind EE on data, however, with some improvements to success rates and throughput, the data story next year could be different. Higher voice success rates and better speech quality could further strengthen O2’s position.

Vodafone ended up in third place for both voice and data. But O2 only pulled ahead in the total scoring via a slight advantage in data performance; it is a small gap to close for Vodafone to draw level with O2, and a little more ground to cover to threaten Three. With good data results and an increased stability in voice, Vodafone could catch up in next year’s P3 Mobile Benchmark UK.


Full report here
http://www.p3-group.com/downloads/2/...rk_UK_2014.pdf

There's also a promo video here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrCH...ature=youtu.be

Makes for interesting reading, thank you.

Well living near the A1M I don't need to know how congested the M6 is.

And as important as the local network quality, a league table of signal quality by phone and network bands would be even better.

what does 163 out of 310 actually mean though?

Seems crazy that Three were last in the Data as when I compare my friends O2 phone and my works Vodafone phone they only have GPRS or Edge whilst my Three phone has fast 3G (have even had to get him to tether his phone and my works phone several times to my Three one).

I found the "90% of speeds were faster than X" metric very eye opening! Take a look at it for the major transfer routes, really shows who has (and who hasn't...) invested in 3G/4G outside of the big metro areas.

http://i.imgur.com/UGV2emu.png

It make more sense if you look at the detail behind the headline numbers though. Three does relatively well on transfer routes where Vod/O2 still have a lot less 3G. There is little difference in small cities but Three lose out big time in large cities against all the others because of it's relatively poor 4G network. Obviously your own experience might be completely different but that can't be used for a national survey.

In any survey it's possible to legitimately change the methodology and get different results but it's important the tests be properly controlled and produce results that are statistically robust if the networks are to take notice. A lot of the surveys we get don't meet this criteria e.g silly ones like Broadband Genie. Even Ofcom's was poor with limited coverage and an age taken between testing and publication. Rootmetrics own testing also opens itself up to easy criticism.

Usually when Vodafone does badly in a survey they come out with something attacking the methodology (and usually it's easy for them to pick holes). For this one though they haven't done that just saying the obvious thing that various surveys show different results and they expect to improve in future. I think that says a lot. The results of the types of tests carried out are interesting too if you read the full report.

Vodafone will no doubt use Net Metrics results to back them up.

Good testing results here. I'd say its an accurate view of the UK and I can easily see how the lack of 4G has hurt Three in the data category.

No GIF required...

Since the testing and scoring system allows comparisons between countries it's interesting to compare P3's latest tests for Germany, Austria and Switzerland with the UK results. Report in English from Connect here http://www.p3-group.com/downloads/2/...015-01_eng.pdf

The results suggest that EE, the overall UK winner would only be 3rd overall in Germany and last by a long way in both Austria and Switzerland. All of the other UK networks would be last everywhere.

Perhaps this is a hidden cost of the relatively cheap prices we've enjoyed for a long time in the UK?

Interesting results on the latest survey. As expected EE came out on top for data but the voice results are pretty poor.
http://www.p3-group.com/downloads/2/...rk_UK_2015.pdf