The 29th of August is the day that we will all get 4G from a major mobile provider, in fact not one but two. Both Vodafone and O2 have announced they’ll be launching their 4G networks at the end of the month.
Sadly they’re following in the footsteps of EE, who far from living up to their Everything Everywhere name, are still very much hardly anything hardly anywhere.
Vodafone will launch their 4G service in London the 29th, and promise to be in 12 more cities by the end of the year. O2 will be up and running, they say, in London, Leeds and Bradford again on the 29th and aim to add another 10 cities in 2013. EE having launched in October 2012 still only have coverage in about 95 UK cities and from personal experience hardly have a phone signal in country areas.
We were promised 4G would be the fastest and greatest mobile browsing experience ever. Everyone was saying we have to have 4G otherwise online commerce would stall and fail. The reality appears to be that 4G is almost 100% hype, mostly non-existent and likely to remain a pipe dream for the foreseeable future except for those in a few city centres sprinkled around the country… but most people don’t live right in the city centre.
It’s hard to walk around a city centre without finding a reliable WiFi connection in whichever office, bar, restaurant or hotel you’re in, largely doing away with the need for 4G. It’s when you go home to the suburbs or if you live in the countryside that you really want 4G and 4G won’t be coming to the suburbs and countryside any time soon.
What’s your mobile signal like where you live? Do you even get 3G or are you still on 2G speeds?
