If the merger with O2 goes ahead, then I should imagine it will improve. But how long that will take, and how long it will take to start sharing the infrastructure, is anyone's guess.

I've mixed feelings on that... O2's network performs like [censored] now...

I ran intensive testing on a route from the South East to the South West Of the country and all the way the speeds and reliability where shocking, however EE averaged around 15meg with 4G always being above 30Mbps.

Regardless of that merging to networks full of data hungry money saving customers is not going to go down well at all.

Three turned the 4G on in Belfast a month or 2 ago, best speedtest ive had is 56mb/24mb with 3 bars.

Seems to be perfect here, their 3G always gave speeds of around 20Mb with a half decent signal.

No complaints here in Brighton, 4G normally tops out around 50Mb. No 4G down on the seafront though!

one other issue as well is PAYG 3 AYCE plan there is a massive difference in speed between PAYG and contract

i got a PAYG sim here right now and i cant even view the My3account page on the phone as the loca mast is under a bit of load, as its a repeater mast no hardline so probery microwave dish might be overloaded, no 4G on that mast at all as not sure if you can do 4G over a microwave link,
before that repeater T-Mobile/(EE) mast was not even sharing with 3 until last year, so it was a massive black hole before for 3

but on contract it works ok enough (under 1-0.5mb/s, move 200 meters away i get connected to the primarily 3/T-Mobile(EE) MBNL mast which is hardline (but no 4G yet) 8-20mb/s on 3G ,the cells are in a awkward location on a high building so req more then just a hang a man over the edge of the building to replace the cells and wiring as they run all the way up the outside of the building tad amount of work i guess

In reply to a post by mlmclaren:

Three's network in near useless at most times of the day now it seems,

That's certainly not a "general" thing. My three service continues to be excellent in all areas I visit.

I'd expect if anything available bandwidth to be improving as the OnePlan customers are being binned off.

Being on the phone to my father whilst he's travelling is also a no go, it just can't keep the call up for longer than 2 minutes at a time, this has been put down to the lack of 2G to fill in weak or blank patches.

Not my experience either - I can happily make a call from Exeter to Truro (don't lose call at all) - and have done on more than one occasion for reasons I shant bore you with. Equally to London and maybe lose it once or twice in a couple of hours. Phones vary, performance varies, weather conditions will vary, but I can't agree that 3 is falling apart generally and certainly it's miles better than Vodafone.

One thing I do strongly recommend is disable 2G entirely on 3 - that'll stop the phone even trying to roam down to Orange/EE, and certainly helps it hold onto a signal.

I left because I got kicked off the one plan.

Went to EE and haven't looked back. Great 4G coverage, plus the bonus of 2G if you need it.

Couldn't believe how poor 3 were in London compared to EE. My mates S6 was on 3G most of the time. Don't remember my phone dropping off 4G at ground level.

People rave about Vodafone in the capital too.

4G could be pretty slow in the evenings in Portsmouth on Three (around 1mbps). 3G just didn't work at all though. Switched to EE in the end as it was significantly faster in the same areas.

In reply to a post by Benjanyan:

4G could be pretty slow in the evenings in Portsmouth on Three (around 1mbps). 3G just didn't work at all though. Switched to EE in the end as it was significantly faster in the same areas.

EE has more radio level capacity (spectrum) - and by not selling 'use as much as you like' it doesn't get people forgetting to use WiFi when at home. This makes a bit difference to the average speeds. Three has approx 10million customers. EE has approx 24million customers.

In reply to a post by therioman:

In reply to a post by mlmclaren:

Three's network in near useless at most times of the day now it seems,

That's certainly not a "general" thing. My three service continues to be excellent in all areas I visit.

True. Three seems as good as any; and we've used all the networks now. Me thinks mlmclaren is just trolling. Little use to his misleading anecdote on a tiny segment of Three's network?

Would love to study this "intensive" testing regimen; the one mlmclaren claims he used to reach his broad-brush conclusion that Three is "near useless".

mlmclaren, give us the low-down; explain the methodology for your "intensive" tests.
What exactly were you testing?
The connectivity and/or the throughput?
What tools did you use to perform these tests?
What testing apparatus did you use? A single phone?
Over what size of an area did you test "between SE and SW England"?
This was testing limited to a narrow corridor of a road or rail journey?
A test performed during a single journey?
Over what period and conditions were these tests performed?
Did you actually identify and test each cell individually, en route?
And you presumably tested all the other networks at the same time, right?
Comparing their availability and throughput, right?
Where can we read the raw results of your intensive study?