5G coverage is expanding in the UK, delivering blistering speeds, but the signals are still weak and 5G-enabled devices are only connecting to the networks one-fifth of the time, new research has found.

Global Wireless Solutions (GWS), which regularly drive tests the UK’s mobile networks, has included the country’s nascent 5G networks in its measurements for the first time. Analysis of the 5G networks from the four mobile operators—EE, O2, Three and Vodafone—found that 5G is available in 37% of GWS’s test markets.

On average, 5G signal is available 40% of the time in cities, 16% of the time in towns and 11% of the time on motorways. This suggests mobile networks are concentrating on major population centres in rolling out the next-generation technology, much as they did when 4G was rolled out a decade ago.

EE, which has the UK’s most developed 5G network, has rolled out its 5G in 125 cities and large towns and will continue reaching more. However, it’s said that it’s only announcing 5G in places with a minimum population of 10,000 people.

Speeds in rural areas and along motorways will lag for a few years. While 5G will be required on roads to enable technologies of the future like self-driving cars, network requirements on motorways today can be met by 4G.

5G networks, where available, are delivering average speeds of 150Mbps, nearly five times the 33Mbps speed achieved on 4G, delivering on their promise. However, 5G signal is weak in many areas. Devices can only connect to 5G where the signal is strong. This means 5G-enabled handsets, such as the latest Apple and Samsung smartphones, are only connecting to the UK’s network 20% of the time when they are available and otherwise revert to slower 4G, GWS found.

GWS also considered what level of 5G coverage is required across an area to deliver a minimum speed—and found the UK’s networks are still lacking.

Testing revealed that 40% coverage in an area is needed to achieve a baseline speed of 100Mbps on average. At this speed, you can download an HD movie in around two minutes. However, this baseline was only achieved in seven out of the 32 cities and towns tested—Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool, London and Manchester—and only be one operator in each. Vodafone provided speeds of over 100Mbps in four of these locations, while EE delivered the other three.

As 5G coverage expands and the signal strengthens, speeds will improve and devices will be able to connect to the networks more often. For example, GWS found that in Belfast, EE’s 5G achieves average speeds of 102Mbps, but while in Manchester, Vodafone’s 5G achieves an overage throughput speed of 166Mbps with 70% coverage.

GWS also named O2 the UK’s most reliable network, although its 5G network is the least developed. O2’s overall network, including its 4G, performed the best of all networks in 14 out of 32 cities and towns and on four motorways.

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Global Wireless Solutions (GWS) has studied the performance of the UK’s mobile networks across 37 cities and other locations and determined that O2 is the best in just under half.

O2 performed the best in 14 out of 32 cities, including Belfast, Birmingham, Cambridge, Cardiff, Glasgow, Leeds, Norwich and Oxford. It also delivered the most reliable service on four major motorways: the M1, M6, M25 and M62. This is the second year in a row O2 has topped GWS’s rankings, after performing the best in 18 out of 36 locations last year.

To evaluate mobile network performance across the UK, GWS engineers conducted a total of 1.2 million data and voice task tests through iOS and Android devices, using both 4G and 5G networks. The firm also polled customers about their experience on the networks between October and December 2020.

Its tests found that EE was the best bet in 15 cities, including Bradford, Bristol, Edinburgh, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Newcastle and Reading, and on smaller motorways. However, it’s falling short in delivering decent mobile broadband in customer’s homes. While 84% of O2 customers were satisfied with their mobile broadband speeds at home, as were 82% of Three and Vodafone subscribers, just 78% of EE customers said the same.

Vodafone’s network was the most reliable in three cities, Nottingham, Sheffield and Swansea, while Three’s didn’t pull ahead in any of the tested locations.

Overall, 39% of O2 subscribers are always satisfied with their network’s reliability, compared to 33% of EE customers, 31% of Vodafone users and 30% of Three subscribers.

However, O2 has the least developed 5G network. A separate study by RootMetrics studied how each operator’s next-generation mobile network performed in the UK’s 16 most populated metropolitan markets in the second half of 2020.

While O2 has expanded its 5G network significantly since the first half of 2020, when RootMetrics was only able to test its 5G network in Belfast, it had expanded to 11 tested markets by the second half of the year. However, its 5G coverage remains limited in those cities, topping out at 17.1% in Hull and managing just 6.6% in Greater London.

In contrast, EE had the best coverage in Nottingham (57%) and achieved coverage of over a third of ten major metropolitan markets.

Vodafone 5G’s coverage was best in Liverpool, at 44%, while Three’s 5G users will find the most coverage in Hull, at 29.6%.

GWS’s testing of 5G networks found that average speeds on the network from any operator exceeded 100Mbps in seven cities: Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool, London and Manchester. Vodafone’s 5G delivered four of these speeds, while EE’s 5G accounted for the other three.

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As independent network benchmarking specialists, we took to the streets (covering over 400,000 miles, all states including Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, and a population base totaling 304 million people, to be precise) to establish what sort of network performance consumers actually experience on their devices, compared to what operators state they are receiving.

We assessed the country’s four major operators: AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint, and quantified their video streaming capabilities into four categories. We thought about which common occurrences most annoy people when attempting to watch their favorite show on their smartphone or tablet and came up with the following parameters: how quickly it loads, video quality, picture freezing, and the reliability of the stream.

So, how did they get on?

Based on all the data we collected, we found AT&T to be the best all-round network for video streaming performance, as determined by our OneScore ranking methodology. It aced three of the four categories, beating second-place Verizon to the pole position. T-Mobile came in third, despite clocking one category win and Sprint came in last.

The nitty gritty

 In testing, an impressive 98% of videos streamed over AT&T’s network were successfully completed, while videos only froze 0.8% of the time. AT&T also experienced higher quality video playback than its competitors. T-Mobile snatched first place from AT&T for the quickest video loading time at 3.2 seconds. At the other end of the scale, 8.5% of the videos streamed on Sprint’s network failed, while freezing 2% of the time, and loading at an average 3.9 seconds. Firmly in the middle of the pack, Verizon nearly completed 98% of the videos streamed on its network, alongside respectable loading times and video quality playback results.

What the results mean

Mobile video streaming is expected to represent three-quarters of all mobile traffic by 2023. This surge in demand will mean operators like Sprint really need to be upping their game to remain competitive with the likes of AT&T, as customers expect more and more data on the go. Mobile networks are underpinning a revolution in how people consume TV and video, but they are also set to play a fundamental role in other developing industries, too — take autonomous vehicles, for instance.

Intel anticipates that the average fully autonomous car will generate 4,000 GB of data for just one hour of driving a day. Laden with hundreds of on-board cameras and sensors to support V2X communication, self-driving vehicles will instigate a “flood of data” according to Intel’s CEO. To put this in the perspective of today’s data dependency, a typical person’s video, chat and other internet use amount to around 650 MB per day. This is set to reach 1.5 GB per day by 2020, which still pales in comparison to the demands of autonomous vehicles.

This is why our recent real-world testing of mobile video streaming is important not only for today’s consumers expecting to watch their favorite shows on their smartphone or tablet but because it also speaks to a much greater issue facing network operators in the not-so-distant future. Operators like AT&T are putting themselves in a good position to facilitate the demands of an even more data-hungry future, ensuring their network provides fast and reliable connectivity. If others are struggling to meet the needs of today’s consumers, they will have their work cut out when the great “flood of data” hits our shores.

To see further details of our nationwide mobile video streaming test, click here.

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