Businesses have different mobile connectivity needs to consumers. This has always made choosing a mobile operator difficult for a business because most network quality comparison reports consider consumer needs first. Where a consumer may care about watching Netflix, playing multiplayer games or having the fastest speeds, a business typically prefers a service that is reliable for sending messages or emails, sharing files or accessing websites. And, a business may care most about specific areas and be less interested in a national average.
On top of that, switching providers can be a hassle — from managing downtime and reconfiguring devices to updating contact details with clients and suppliers. And if the new service isn’t reliable, the consequences can be significant: lost productivity, frustrated employees and wasted money.
Smartphones are incredibly important devices for businesses: 51% of employees spend three or more hours each workday using a smartphone for work-related activities, according to CCS Insight’s Survey: Employee Workplace Technology, 2024. Mobile networks also offer employees a solution for their frustrations with Wi-Fi. In the office, 32% of employees are frustrated by unreliable or a lack of Wi-Fi connectivity, with high levels of frustration also in the home for remote working (30%) or while travelling (27%). But a mobile network still needs to be high-quality to fill in for Wi-Fi and it’s often hard for businesses to know whether they can rely on 4G or 5G.
Price is also an important factor. If one mobile network is much more expensive but only slightly faster, a business may opt for the cheaper option provided it is good enough for their needs. However, this trade-off is a tricky balancing act and a hard decision to make without first-hand experience of each network and the quality of connection they provide. Fortunately, there are now ways to make that decision-making considerably easier and less risky.
The Arrival of eSIM-Based Network Test Drives
With network trials using eSIM a business can test an alternative mobile network and ensure it works well before switching over to a new operator. With eSIM, a user can test a potential new network provider alongside their existing service. In other words, they can keep their existing mobile phone number, SMS, WhatsApp and data service while testing a different network on the same phone. eSIM also allows businesses to set up a new network remotely, without needing to visit a mobile phone shop, or wait for a physical SIM card to arrive in the post.
Essentially, both the existing mobile network SIM and the test eSIM for the new network are running in parallel. Phone calls and text messages to the existing number are still delivered while the business user switches their data over to use the new network for a trial period. If it works well enough in the locations the business spends time in and for the applications the business uses, then it removes almost all the risk in switching network provider.
Trials Matter Because Local Network Quality Differs from National Averages
There are many mobile network testing companies and numerous test results to compare. A business needs to understand how the performance that the applications and services that it uses will work where it operates. Analysing network test results is complicated — especially as there are often differences in the rankings between testing companies, as well as variation in the scores between national and regional results, as the table below highlights.
| Location | Operator | Download Speed | Upload Speed | Latency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bristol | Three | 92.43 Mbps | 11.58 Mbps | 68 ms |
| Bristol | EE | 54.76 Mbps | 9.96 Mbps | 53 ms |
| Bristol | O2 | 31.31 Mbps | 5.05 Mbps | 69 ms |
| Bristol | Vodafone | 54.70 Mbps | 11.77 Mbps | 58 ms |
| Birmingham | Three | 99.02 Mbps | 11.65 Mbps | 67 ms |
| Birmingham | EE | 79.75 Mbps | 13.55 Mbps | 55 ms |
| Birmingham | O2 | 36.94 Mbps | 6.80 Mbps | 75 ms |
| Birmingham | Vodafone | 44.82 Mbps | 11.07 Mbps | 57 ms |
Source: Opensignal mobile app, March 2025
Nationally, Ookla-owned Rootmetrics and Opensignal agree that EE offers users the overall fastest speeds1. But Ookla and Opensignal rate Three UK as having the fastest 5G speeds2. Regionally, results differ, both between companies and across regions within the same company. For example, Rootmetrics shows EE as having the fastest average speeds in Birmingham and Bristol, although it doesn’t list the actual measurement in its report3. By contrast, the data shown in Opensignal’s app reports that Three users have the fastest speeds in both locations.
On latency, which is a measurement of the responsiveness of the network and is important for services like video calling through WhatsApp, Teams or Zoom, for example, the operators rank differently than they do for download speed. But the question for a business is whether that latency performance is good enough in practice? Only by trying the app that the business uses on each network will a business know the answer. The same idea applies for speed: by testing, a business will know if a network’s upload speed is suitable for business usage.
Three Launches New eSIM-Based Network Trial for Businesses
Three UK has launched the UK’s first eSIM trial for businesses, offering businesses in Birmingham and Bristol a way to test its network before making the commitment to switch providers.
Although Three UK has been operating for over twenty years — it launched on 3 March 2003 — its network bears no resemblance to those early years when many people’s perceptions of its network formed. Since then, most notably it struck a network-sharing deal to improve coverage, initially with T-Mobile, and that is still in place today with EE. It launched 4G services over a decade ago, and more recently launched 5G using large amounts of new spectrum. Originally, it was a 3G-only service.
On 5G, Three holds significantly more 5G-only spectrum than any other UK operator with over 100 MHz available. This additional spectrum reduces the likelihood of network congestion at busy times of day in population centres, as well as enabling faster speeds, and helping Three to offer generous amounts of bundled data with its subscriptions.
International Operator Examples of Network Test Drives
In the US, challenger operator T-Mobile made a similar move in 2021 when it launched its Network Test Drive (now called Network Pass). Like Three UK, T-Mobile had advanced its network quality tremendously by using a large quantity of 5G spectrum capacity — again like Three, more than its rivals — but many people remained cautious about switching over.
T-Mobile’s success was tangible, because both its main competitors followed its lead with their own eSIM-based network trial offers. Verizon Test Drive launched in 2022 and AT&T launched its offer in late 2024. The US was a leader in this approach because of widespread eSIM compatibility triggered by Apple’s move to offer exclusively eSIM-based iPhones with the iPhone 14 range in 2022.
eSIM Phone Support Is Widespread Now
Outside the US, many other phones also support eSIM, but in the UK and elsewhere eSIM support is offered alongside the traditional physical SIM card, which means users may not be aware that their phone supports eSIM. Every Google Pixel phone launched from the Pixel 4 in 2019 supports eSIM, while using a different operator on the eSIM from the physical SIM card. For Samsung, every Galaxy S series phone has supported eSIM since 2020’s Galaxy S20. Every iPhone model released since 2018’s iPhone XS and XR support eSIM.
The Future Is Ever Changing
Another challenge for a business when evaluating published network tests is that network performance is always changing. Since a report was published, a network may have improved or worsened.
There’s another imminent change in the UK market: Vodafone and Three UK have been given regulatory approval to merge. The combined network should offer improved coverage. Additionally, the 5G standalone technology that Vodafone already offers is likely to become available to Three customers too. This means that pre-merger test reports will be out of date, but trying out a network on a trial will continue to provide up-to-date evidence of whether a network matches the needs of a business. CCS Insight expects that if Three Business is successful in the UK with its eSIM-based network trial, just as in the US, other operators will follow suit and launch similar network trials.
- See Opensignal, United Kingdom Mobile Network Experience Report, September 2024: https://www.opensignal.com/reports/2024/09/uk/mobile-network-experience and Rootmetrics, State of the Mobile Union Report, data collection period: July – December 2024: https://www.ookla.com/research/reports/rootmetrics-uk-state-of-mobile-union-2h-2024 ↩︎
- See Ookla, UK Speedtest Awards, Q3-Q4 2024: https://www.speedtest.net/awards/united_kingdom/ and Opensignal, United Kingdom Mobile Network Experience Report, September 2024: https://www.opensignal.com/reports/2024/09/uk/mobile-network-experience ↩︎
- See https://rootmetrics.com/en-GB/rootscore/map/metro/bristol/2025/1H and https://rootmetrics.com/en-GB/rootscore/map/metro/birmingham/2024/2H ↩︎
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