LONDON – Mobile 4G connection “varies wildly” across the United Kingdom, which lags behind Estonia and Peru for overall availability, latest figures show.
Middlesbrough is the best city for 4G access with 83% availability, while Bournemouth is the worst at 68%, according to the report from consumer group Which? and independent mobile coverage analyst OpenSignal.
The average overall 4G availability across the U.K. is 65%, meaning mobile users can only access 4G nearly two-thirds of the time.
This ranks the U.K. at just 54th in the world, behind Estonia and Peru, according to a previous report published by OpenSignal in November.
The comparison of 20 of the biggest cities across the U.K. placed London at 16th on the table, above Nottingham, Cardiff, Southampton and Bournemouth.
Glasgow and Edinburgh came 9th and 10th respectively.
The report also looked at average 4G download speeds across the U.K., finding Stoke-on-Trent to be the fastest city and Brighton the slowest.
Which? is calling on the next government to work with Ofcom and mobile providers to ensure that “critical” reforms are made to the market that deliver better performance and service for customers.
The OpenSignal study analysed more than 500 million data readings from mobile phones taken from more than 30,000 users between December 1 and February 28.
