The introduction of the 4G represented an important change in the market of mobile communications, bringing all the major competitors to accept the challenge and attempt to acquire a large slice of the new big cake.

However, the high competition led to unequally distributions of power with some areas benefiting more than others of specific operators instead of others. Therefore, before deciding to upgrade to the new technology, it is important to understand how strong is the signal in a specific area and what are the best providers for that area.

Here is possible to find a map with the “hottest” areas offering a strong signal and the coldest ones where the coverage is less and the signal is weaker:

At the moment, the average 4G speed seem to be between 12Mbps to 15 Mbps with the signal higher pitches in the largest cities such as London, Leeds and Manchester.

For instance, EE offers the best overall performance according to Mobiles.co.uk, covering over 300 town and cities and 75% of the UK population.

However, Three takes the lead in Scotland, with an average download speed of 10.6 Mbps and an upload speed of 7.0Mbps while Vodafone gets the first position in Northern Ireland, with an average download speed of 19.3Mbps and an upload speed of 9.9Mbps.

Jay Karsandas, digital manager at Mobiles.co.uk, pointed out that “despite a slow start, the UK has made significant progress in the provision and speed of 4G”.

The digital manager also explained that “it is likely that the initially high price point of 4G dissuaded consumers from taking contracts that utilised the high-speed technology. With a range of flexible and competitive 4G plans on offer by major retailers, and a race to provide the most UK coverage, 4G will inevitably be the future of mobile connectivity.”

It also seems that, according to OpenSignal latest State of the Market report, the average speed of the 4G mobile networks in the UK has almost halved during the last year.

The main reason seems to be an increase of 4G users versus a limited number of 4G masts that, even though lately have been increasing, failed to prevent the congestion of the networks.

Written by: Pietro Paolo Frigenti