Liverpool has ranked the best of the UKs 16 largest cities for mobile performance in  new study into customer signal experience across all networks.

The research, carried out by RootMetrics, found that Liverpool is the best city of calls, text and data, with Manchester and Coventry taking second and third place respectively.

London came in fifth, behind Birmingham, largely due to its poor performance in the calls category. Of the 16 cities studied, Hull came in last, measuring bottom for both data and texts. Liverpool also rated top in reliability, while Edinburgh scored the best for speed.

“With the central role that mobile phones play in our lives today, good mobile service is more important than ever,” said Jennifer Sokolowsky in a blog post accompanying the stats. “We expect to be able to zip through the internet, send and receive texts instantly, upload social media photos in a flash – and even, from time to time, have a clear conversation.

“Good mobile service has become as important to us as running water and electricity that works every time you flip the switch. But, just as some cities have better infrastructure than others, our testing shows that not all cities are created equal when it comes to mobile service.”