Four companies own the masts and everybody else rents from them — the single fact that explains most of the confusion in British mobile.
Written July 2026 · no prices published · nothing for sale
| Owner | Where it came from |
|---|---|
| EE | Built in 2010 by merging Orange and T-Mobile; launched Britain's first 4G in 2012; owned by BT Group |
| O2 | Began as BT Cellnet; renamed in 2002; half of Virgin Media O2 since 2021 |
| Three | Opened in 2003 as the data-first newcomer; half of VodafoneThree since June 2025 |
| Vodafone | Among the oldest in the market; the other half of that 2025 merger |
Companies without masts buy capacity wholesale and resell identical radio waves under their own name.
| Owner | Brands renting its signal |
|---|---|
| EE | 1pMobile |
| O2 | Tesco Mobile, giffgaff, Sky Mobile |
| Three | SMARTY, iD Mobile |
| Vodafone | VOXI, Lebara |
3G has gone — two networks switched it off during 2024, one during 2025. Voice calls now travel over 4G, so 4G Calling must be enabled on every handset.
5G is widely deployed but mostly leans on 4G underneath. Standalone 5G runs on its own modern core — faster where live, still the smallest layer, and needing a recent handset.
June 2025 combined two of the four owners into the largest operator in Britain by customer numbers, with substantial money committed to merging the two mast estates.
For customers the practical consequence is that coverage at any given address is less settled than usual.
Ring us and we will go through it with you. Nothing is offered for sale at any point.
We hold no arrangement with any network, take no commission and sell nothing at all. If your question is not answered here, telephone and ask.
020 3896 5248 Guidance and information only. We sell nothing, arrange nothing and act for no network.Our position. teesrition is an independent information service for mobile customers in the United Kingdom. We are not a mobile network. We have no affiliation with, endorsement from, appointment by or connection to Three, EE, O2, Vodafone, Sky Mobile, Tesco Mobile or any other provider, and no commercial arrangement with any of them. We do not sell, supply, arrange or broker SIM cards, contracts, handsets or services of any kind, and we take no commission from anybody. Everything here is general information; a provider's own current terms always take precedence.
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