Vodafone disputes poor rural network coverage figures
Vodafone has disputed the findings of a survey that ranked it bottom for mobile phone coverage in rural areas.
The findings were released by communications watchdog Ofcom and based on research carried out at the end of 2013 by data analysts RootMetrics.
The company analysed data from EE, O2, Three and Vodafone on the performance of their networks.
See also: ‘Not-spot’ rural mobile phone scheme ‘not enough’ – CLA
It showed that overall 92.6% of all calls on Vodafone were successfully connected. But in rural areas the figure fell to 79.9%.
But a Vodafone spokesman rejected the findings.
“Regular, independent testing of our network shows that we’re the market leader for call set-up,” the spokesman said.
He quoted alternative results from a survey conducted in the spring that showed Vodafone came out on top.
“Vodafone cell availability has now reached an all-time high of above 99% and our call set-up success rate is industry leading at 97.9%”, the spokesman added.
All calls successfully connected
- EE – 97%
- O2 – 95.3%
- Three – 94.5%
- Vodafone – 92.6%
Rural calls successfully connected
- EE – 93.7%
- O2 – 87.4%
- Three – 86%
- Vodafone – 79.9%
Source: RootMetrics