Which? Awards the Best and Worst UK Mobile Networks for 2026
Consumer magazine Which? has published the results from their latest UK mobile network satisfaction survey, which questioned 5,137 adult customers in January 2026 about their chosen UK mobile phone operator (mix of Which? Connect panel and members of the public). Overall, Talkmobile topped the table with a customer satisfaction score of 83%, while Three UK placed last on just 65%.
The survey itself typically questioned respondents about their experiences across several categories, including network reliability, overall value for money, customer service in general, the speed/ease of getting in touch, incentives, technical support, roaming value for money, download speeds (mobile broadband), communication frequency and quality. But to get the detailed results of each category you’d need to pay for a Which? subscription.
In addition, the survey also ranked each provider by “Customer Score“, which is based on the respondent’s satisfaction and their likelihood to recommend the service. One catch with a survey of this limited size is that they usually need at least 50 responses to include a survey result, and thus the sample sizes for some of these operators will be considerably lower (less credible) than others. Take with a pinch of salt.
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As usual the largest mobile network operators could all be found in the bottom half of Which?’s table, while the top portion was dominated by smaller virtual (MVNO) operators that harness the same networks as the biggest operators.
Which? 2026 UK Mobile Awards Results – Customer Score
The results from the same time in 2025 are included in brackets () below.
Talkmobile 83% (up from 80%)
Tesco Mobile 81% (up from 79%)
Smarty 79% (down from 82%) tied
Giffgaff 79% (up from 77%) tied
Voxi 79% (down from 81%) tied
1p Mobile 78% (up from 71%)
Lebara 78% (down from 79%)
ASDA Mobile 77% (up from 71%)
EE 74% (up from 71%)
iD Mobile 73% (up from 71%) tied
Sky Mobile 73% (up from 71%) tied
Vodafone 72% (up from 69%)
Lyca Mobile 68% (up from 64%)
O2 67% (down from 68%)
Three UK 65% (up from 63%)
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Smarty third and Three last is weird. They are the same network.
Customer service maybe the differentiator here.
Smarty have rolling contracts, cheaper. Never contacted them over 3 years. Had Three before, wasn’t happy. For example, had problems to get Home Broadband as they kept saying I don’t have 4G or 5G. Also have very long contracts.
There’s nothing wrong with Three’s network, as much as there is with any other in places anyway.
Smarty is great, rolling monthly, very affordable and access to Three and Vodafone networks. No fluff.
Once more people realise just buying a phone and a rolling plan is better, they will move off the main providers. Although I guess MVNOs will get prices increased once it swings that way.
People are probably more forgiving if they are getting a cheaper deal with a MVNO than paying a premium on the main networks.
Tesco Mobile 81% (down from 79%), surely it is up.
Some MVNOs are absent from the list, for example Mozillion and spusu. How should we interpret their absence?
Presumably less than 50 responses
I’m not surprised Three are bottom, I’ve recently left them and they are frankly the worst network you could ever use, especially their customer service. Moved back to EE and frankly they’re fantastic. Surprised Talkmobile are top, heard bad things about them but fair play to them.
Tesco Mobile 81% (down from 79%)
???
Had Smarty for years…£15 for unlimited…Never had to contact customer service
Won’t go back to any of the major networks as they all want 24 month contracts
Lebara are great. Been with them for 4 years now, way cheaper than main networks. Only had to contact cs a few times and they were great
it’s really interesting that there are non of the large networks in the top 8 however all the top 8 use the main networks as they are MVNOs. I do wonder if Which used any form or weighting to account for the smaller user base of the MVNOs? I’m not a statistition so not sure how one would do that. But it is interesting.
Smarty is owned and operated by Three. Same company. Giffgaff opened and operated by O2, same company. Talkmobile and Voxi owned and operated by Vodafone, same company. All of these PR releases are somewhat pointless. Clearly people are less fussed when they pay less which is kinda obvious. Telling us nothing.
Less fussed? Only if the service is any good, if not, they’d leave the service.
I’ve been using Lebara for years and they are the best mobile provider I’ve ever used.