‘Time on 4G’ is what best represents our customers’ experience. It’s time we told them that

Honest reporting, actual measures and improved predictions: we are committed to being clear on coverage

A year ago, I outlined my ambition to get our customers connected 100 per cent of the time, to 4G or WiFi.

Those are the technologies that give customers what they need.

If they’re on 2G or 3G, our customers are less happy. That’s a fact.

We measure our customers’ Network NPS and we measure our customers’ Time on 4G (the amount of time they’re on 4G, versus 3G or 2G, when they’re using the mobile network, as opposed to WiFi), and there’s a clear correlation. Just a few points more on 2G – or less on 4G – and a customer moves from a ‘promoter’ to a ‘detractor’.

That’s how important a reliable data connection is to our customers: it’s vital to them.

The average ‘Time on 4G’ for a customer on our network using 4G Calling has gone up from 86 per cent to 94 per cent in 2017.

Plenty of insight, investment and innovation has contributed to that. 4G coverage in new places; site upgrades to create denser 4G in urban areas; 4G Calling; new radio parameters to stop customers dropping down to 3G so easily.

It’s all helping.

Time on 4G for rail commuters

For commuters – a group I’m personally focused on, given my own daily experience – it’s a mixed story.

Assessing subsets of our customers, we can see that average Time on 4G for a month fluctuates by 20 points depending on having 4G Calling enabled and which commuter route they take every day. The London commuters that benefit most from having 4G Calling enabled on their devices are those coming in from the west to Paddington. Their time on 4G increases from 77 per cent to 90 per cent.

Rail coverage is the biggest challenge that remains for the UK mobile industry. The situation has improved immensely with 4G rollout, but it isn’t good enough – yet.

4G geographic coverage

We’ve increased our 4G geographic coverage by around 11 percentage points in 2017 – like adding 4G coverage equivalent to the size of Lincolnshire, Devon, Norfolk and Argyll – across the most rural and remote parts of the UK.

Geographic coverage was the key measure that I introduced a year ago, asking the industry to be ‘Clear on Coverage’. That’s the measure that gives a significantly more accurate – and fair – representation of a network than the outdated population coverage metric.

If you look for the deliberately misleading use of ‘99 per cent UK coverage’ on our competitors’ websites now, it’s very hard to find. I consider that good progress. But none of our competitors has been brave enough to start reporting their geographic coverage yet. Progress still needs to be made.

Being transparent

Now, as we announced this morning at EE, we’re moving on again.

For all the investment and resource put into increasing geographic coverage, Time on 4G is the measure that best represents our customers’ experience. That actual measure, above any prediction we can make, is far more informative for our customers.

The two measures working in combination can really improve the transparency of what mobile operators in the UK are really offering.

Network reporting is something that we’re working on closely with the team at Ofcom. I share their ambition to ensure that customers are presented with the best and most accurate information to help them understand mobile networks and how they differ.

As well as improving the quality of predictive reporting, Time on 4G is part of a suite of new metrics we’re looking to introduce as the next phase of Clear on Coverage. The actual throughput – or data speed – customers are receiving for video services is another, along with the amount of calls made on 4G versus 2G or 3G.

These are measures of real experience, to complement predictions. And these are where we’ll be able to get the best insights and make the most impactful network enhancements.

We remain committed to being clear on coverage, and we’ll keep using our insight, investment and innovation to give the best network experience to customers.   

Follow me on Twitter @MarcAllera