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Home » Mobile network performance in the UK

Mobile network performance in the UK

by | Jun 23, 2018 | Business Mobile, Business Telecom Services, Connectivity, Telecoms News

Table of Contents

Introduction

Mobile network performance in the UK has improved significantly over the last few years, with the rise of 5G mobile technology and continuous development of network infrastructures by leading telecom providers. In 2024, leading into 2025, businesses and consumers are more reliant on reliable and fast mobile networks than ever before.

Rise of 5G

The introduction to 5G is still ongoing and continues to dominate the mobile network landscape in the UK. According to Ofcom, the UK is making great progress in expanding its 5G coverage, with major telecom operators focusing on urban and suburban areas.

5G Coverage

At the end of 2024, EE is the most popular mobile provider in the UK, and leads in 5G speed and coverage. Vodafone and Three are next in line, who are ramping up their 5G rollouts, but EE is on top as of now, for both speed and reliability, according to a report by OpenSignal.

Going into 2025, 5G is available at 92% of premises in the UK, and 4G remains around 93%. This is according to Ofcom. Some rural areas are still lacking from being able to reach the 4G and 5G technologies.

Is 4G Still Important?

Even though 5G is becoming more and more available, 4G remains as a backbone. According to OpenSignals report, 4G is crucial in maintaining connectivity and speeds when 5G becomes unavailable, or drops for any reason. For this reason, 4G still remains very important, particularly for areas that may not even have 5G yet, but has 4G. Network operators such as O2 still continue to invest in their 4G networks to expand their coverage.

Challenges

According to OpenSignals report, though 5G is expanding rapidly, it is still doing poor to reach more rural areas as the cost of deploying the infrastructure there is a lot higher. Urban areas are tending to have much higher speeds and more consistent coverage in comparison to rural areas where users are finding lots of limitations when it comes to 5G technologies.

In places with dense populations, network congestion becomes a problem, and speeds are slowed down due to the amount of traffic that is using the network. For this, infrastructure needs to be continually upgraded.

What does this mean for businesses?

For businesses, mobile network performance can be very crucial for day to day operations, especially as nowadays businesses use remote/hybrid work models. With solutions such as MS Teams and other cloud based business applications being used more and more, having a reliable mobile network is essential for efficiency and day to day running.

For this reason, businesses should consider investing in telecom solutions that prioritise fast, reliable mobile connectivity to ensure that their team stays constantly connected regardless of location.  Especially if you take advantage of Mobile Braodband Data as an emergency back up solution.

The Future of Mobile Network Performance in the UK

The future of mobile networks in the UK looks promising, particularly with the continuous investment in 5G and improvements to 4G technology. As the rollout of 5G continues, rural areas will likely benefit from improved speeds and network reliability, operators are also working to hopefully reduce network congestion and improve the quality of their services to make connectivity better for businesses and consumers.

In the next few years we should hopefully see 5G available in more areas, and at higher speeds with better reliability, and perhaps even the next iteration of it may begin to rollout.

The importance of a reliable and fast mobile network cannot be overstated, especially after the events of COVID-19, the world really showed how reliant we can be on it. With 5G’s reachability increasing, 4G will continue to still be apart of the UK’s mobile network infrastructure for the foreseeable future.
Businesses who are looking to stay competitive need to ensure they choose the right telecom provider, one that can offer fast and reliable connectivity.

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Other Works Cited Edge Delta, 2024. How Many Companies Use Cloud Computing in 2024? [10 Statistics and Insights]. [Online] Available at: https://edgedelta.com/company/blog/how-many-companies-use-cloud-computing-in-2024 [Accessed Nov 2024].

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