Ofcom’s mobile coverage checker: What to do if you’re not with O2, Three, EE or Vodafone?

Credit where credit’s due. Ofcom’s mobile coverage checker is an excellent tool. Sure, its design is pretty appalling and uninspiring, but that’s what you expect from a quango.

Where it excels is that, within a few clicks, you can check the quality of an address’ indoor/outdoor voice call, 3G and 4G coverage. Which is great, if all you want is the data from the big four – O2, Three, EE and Vodafone.

However, there’s a dozen other virtual mobile networks available to customers in the UK. How do you check the coverage of their coverage? Use this list to see which provider your network piggybacks its coverage from.

• Virgin Mobile uses EE
• Blyk uses EE (No 4G)
• Vectone Mobile uses EE (No 4G)
• Family Mobile (Ikea) uses EE (No 4G)
• Lycamobile uses O2
  
• Tesco Mobile uses O2
• Giffgaff uses O2
• Abica uses the EE
• Talkmobile (Carphone Warehouse) uses Vodafone
• BT Mobile uses Vodafone
• Asda Mobile uses Vodafone
• Lebara Mobile uses Vodafone

Note that a virtual mobile network’s coverage will be the same as its provider.