Best mobile phone company revealed by Which? - it's not Vodafone, EE, Three or O2

The “Big Four” mobile phone providers have been outshone by smaller rivals offering better value for money.

Consumer group Which? found Three, Vodafone, O2 and EE all performed poorly. It said this suggested people could be better off with a smaller firms, which piggyback on the infrastructure of a parent network, as these performed exceptionally.

A lot of these, such as Smarty and Giffgaff, also don’t make the unpredictable inflation-linked price hikes that the Big Four do. Three was the worst performer, with 46% of its customers reporting a problem in the past year. It got a 60% customer score.

The score was based on satisfaction and likelihood to recommend. Users also rated aspects including value for money and network speeds. Three’s score compared poorly to iD Mobile and Tesco, where just 11% and 12% of customers respectively had issues.

Giants Vodafone and O2 were second worst – both on 68% – while EE scored 69%. Tesco Mobile scored 83%, followed by Smarty with a rating of 82%.

Natalie Hitchins, Which? head of home products and services, said switching is “easy to do and can save them money and improve customer experience”.

A Three spokesperson said: “We are disappointed with the results of this survey and take the results very seriously. Improving customer experience is a huge focus area for the business and we are working on a number of internal measures to significantly reduce complaints and poor performance.

"Delivering a great experience for our customers is our absolute priority and drives everything we do at Three.” We approached Vodafone, EE and O2 for comment

Which?'s top 4

Tesco - 83%

Smarty - 82%

Giffgaff - 80%

Voxi - 77%

Which?'s bottom 4

Three - 60%

Vodafone - 68%

O2 - 68%

EE - 69%