Three UK Tops UK 5G Speeds in H1 2025, Vodafone Close Behind

On July 9th, 2025, Ookla published its comprehensive study analyzing 5G mobile broadband performance across the UK. The data, gathered from over 379,025 user samples and more than 2 million speed tests, highlights the dominance of Three UK in terms of speed and overall network quality. The study utilizes a Speed Score, which weights various metrics like download speed (70%), upload speed (20%), and latency (10%).

Three UK achieved the highest Speed Score of 55.17, with median download speeds of 227.77 Mbps and upload speeds of 13.07 Mbps. Vodafone closely followed, reflecting the ongoing competition between the telecom giants as they prepare to unify their networks under the Vodafone-Three brand.

The rankings were influenced by various factors inherent to mobile broadband, such as user location, device capabilities, environmental conditions, network capacity, and spectrum usage, making the results a snapshot rather than an absolute measure of performance.

Other UK operators, like EE (BT) and O2 (Virgin Media), ranked third and fourth respectively, with lower speed scores. The merging of Three UK and Vodafone is expected to impact future performance, potentially leading to changes in network consistency and speed, depending on the deployment strategies adopted.

Overall, the study underscores the competitive landscape of UK telecoms, highlighting the importance of speed in consumer satisfaction and network development.

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