A survey of the UK’s mobile phone users has crowned smaller, price-first mobile networks best in the majority of circumstances, soundly beating the country’s incumbent providers EE, O2, Three and Vodafone.
Price comparison firm Uswitch surveyed 27,188 broadband and mobile customers over the age of 18, and also took into account the opinions of a panel of 11 industry judges, including Express.co.uk’s technology editor Dave Snelling. After the votes were tallied, at an awards ceremony on Thursday in London, Uswitch named mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) VOXI as mobile network of the year.
VOXI, which is owned by Vodafone, markets itself with the perk of unlimited social media data. This means that using Facebook, WhatsApp, Snapchat, X, Instagram, Messenger and Pinterest on a mobile data connection does not count against your monthly data allowance, although this does not include voice and video calls over these platforms.
Still, if you’re addicted to the scroll, you can do it for free with VOXI. Prices start from £10 per month.
Runner-up in the ‘highly commended’ spot was Smarty, the MVNO owned by Three. It offers contract-free rolling monthly plans starting from just £6 per month. Its data-only plans also work well for tablet owners.
Uswitch said 44 percent of all respondents selected low monthly cost and value for money as the most important things to them when choosing a mobile plan, while 46 percent said a price rise would be the main thing to convince them to switch to another mobile network from their existing one.
MVNOs Tesco Mobile, Lebara and Giffgaff won for customer service, roaming and handset contract network respectively, while VOXI also won for data, SIM only and value for money. The only one of the UK’s main four mobile networks to win in the mobile category was Three as the best mobile network for perks.
Of these mentioned categories, the 11 expert judges only decided the roaming award, with the public vote crowning all other winners.
“In 2026, the ‘household budget’ isn’t just about the lowest price – it’s about the best return on investment,” said Ernest Doku, telecoms expert at Uswitch.
“The success of smaller mobile providers at this year’s awards shows that consumers are voting with their wallets for the networks that offer the most for their money.”
The voting also crowned winners in six categories for broadband and TV providers, where incumbent brands made a better showing. EE won national broadband provider of the year, with Vodafone taking home gongs for best value for money and most popular provider.
Virgin Media was voted most reliable, though this was backed up with data from network monitoring firm Opensignal. Regional broadband provider of the year was won by YouFibre, with Plusnet winning for best customer service.
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