Three named fastest UK mobile network for 2025

Three has been named among the top-performing UK mobile networks for 2025 across several independent performance studies.

Separate reports from SpeedGeo, Ookla and nPerf all place Three at or near the top of their mobile rankings, despite using different methodologies and datasets.

Together, the results show how relative performance at the top of the UK mobile market continues to shift, even after years of network investment.

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Three ranked fastest UK mobile network

By the end of 2025, multiple independent datasets placed Three at or near the top of UK mobile performance rankings, based on large volumes of real-world user testing.

In its UK Mobile Network Awards 2025, SpeedGeo ranked Three as the fastest mobile network overall, reporting an average download speed of 94.5 Mb/s. The results were drawn from 109,136 mobile speed tests carried out on smartphones and tablets across the UK, covering a mix of 4G and 5G connections.

In the SpeedGeo rankings, Three finished ahead of the other major UK mobile networks on average download speed:

Separately, Ookla's Speedtest Awards named Three the UK's Top-Rated Mobile Network for Q3-Q4 2025, giving it a rating score of 3.2, ahead of EE (3.0), Vodafone (2.9) and O2 (2.7). Ookla's ratings combine multiple indicators from Speedtest data, including speed, latency and consistency, across both 4G and 5G use.

A third dataset, nPerf's 2025 UK mobile performance report, placed EE and Three joint-first overall, with total scores of 86,470 and 84,993 nPoints respectively. Both networks recorded average download speeds of over 110 Mb/s, while Three led on upload speed (16.5 Mb/s) and recorded the lowest average latency (35.3 ms) in the study. Vodafone and O2 ranked third and fourth.

While the three studies use different scoring systems and timeframes, all are based on large-scale, real-world testing, and each independently places Three at or near the top of UK mobile performance rankings for 2025.

Fastest doesn't always mean best everywhere

The results point to a highly competitive top tier in the UK mobile market, rather than a single network leading on every measure.

Across the studies, Three performs strongly on raw speed and responsiveness. SpeedGeo and Ookla place it top overall, while nPerf shows Three sharing the lead with EE - matching EE on download speed and leading on upload performance and latency, which matter for video calls, gaming and other real-time uses.

However, coverage is where user experience differences are most pronounced. Speed and experience rankings reflect performance where users are connected, not how widely or evenly that performance is available. Historically, Three's strengths have been most visible in urban and high-traffic areas, where network capacity and spectrum depth play a bigger role.

In contrast, EE and Vodafone have typically been associated with broader geographic - and even rural - coverage, particularly outside major towns and cities. This is reflected in experience-based measures in reports from nPerf and Ookla, where EE scores strongly even when it is not the outright fastest on download speed.

For customers, the practical takeaway is that headline speed rankings matter most if the network performs well where you actually use your phone. Urban and heavy data users may benefit most from faster networks, while those in rural areas or with weaker indoor signal may still prioritise coverage consistency over peak performance.

Those trade-offs shape individual choices - and sit behind many of the differences seen in national performance rankings.

What performance rankings reveal about the UK mobile market

Performance leadership among UK mobile networks has shifted over time, rather than remaining fixed. In the late 2010s and early 2020s, independent studies frequently placed EE at the top of national performance tables, while more recent datasets from SpeedGeo, Ookla and nPerf place Three at or near the top, often alongside EE.

That longer view helps frame the current results. Even as all major networks have expanded 4G and 5G coverage over a number of years, measurable differences in performance continue to appear across large-scale, real-world testing, particularly around speed, latency and responsiveness.

At the same time, national rankings sit alongside a fragmented local reality. Coverage, congestion and indoor signal strength still vary widely by area, meaning strong national performance does not translate into a uniform experience everywhere.

Structural changes in the market may influence how those differences evolve. Following the Vodafone-Three merger, the combined group has committed to deeper network integration and wider coverage, a shift that could affect how speed and availability balance out in future testing.

For now, the results act as a snapshot of how networks compare under current conditions - reinforcing that, even after years of network upgrades, independent testing continues to show measurable differences between UK mobile networks.