Mobile internet speeds in the Greater London area have more than doubled since O2 and Vodafone began their 4G rollouts at the end of August, according to independent mobile network performance monitoring site RootMetrics.
The firm found that, in London, Vodafone has an average download speed of 9.5 Mbps and an upload speed of 4.7 Mbps, which edges over O2's average 7.1 Mbps download speed and 3.7 Mbps upload speed.
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But despite both networks more than doubling their previous speeds, EE remains the fastest following the launch of its "double speed" 4G network, with average speeds of 19.3 Mbps and 12.9 Mbps.
The network, which was the first in the UK to offer 4G services, was top of the major operators for mobile internet. RootMetrics took into account accessibility, email, average speeds and success rates, and EE had a score of 98.8, O2 followed with 72.5, and RootMetrics claimed that Three and Vodafone were tied in third with scores of 66.5 and 64.5 respectively.
Meanwhile, O2 was the best network for calls, recording the fewest call failures of any network. It tied with EE in the text category.
Overal, EE was the highest rated mobile network in terms of performance, with a score of 90.6, O2 was second with 81.4, and Vodafone and Three were again virtually tied with scores of 72.3 and 71.4 respectively.
Problems outside of London's city centre
London's surrounding areas such as St. Albans, Maidstone and Basildon see uploads and downloads taking nearly twice as long as they do in the city centre. RootMetrics said that download tests on Vodafone found 4G 73.4 per cent of the time in the Greater London area, but this dropped to just 18.7 per cent outside the centre. In download tests on O2, 4G was found 48.2 per cent of the time within Zone 1, but just 5.4 per cent outside of it. EE had a 84.6 per cent score in the city, and 64 per cent outside.
Meanwhile, Three is the only network that is yet to offer 4G services in the UK. In August, it announced that it would be launching 4G in December, at no extra cost to existing customers. Despite this, the company still has better mobile internet accessibility of 93.8 per cent, than O2 (90.4 per cent) and Vodafone (88 per cent). It also tied EE for overall app and web speed performance despite its generally slower speeds.
Communciations regulator Ofcom is to conduct a speed test on all of the 4G networks by the end of the year.
