The report, based on more than 500million data readings from mobile phones taken from 30,000 users in the three months up to the end of February, found that 4G services varied enormously around the country.
4G coverage, which is viewed by many as an essential service, was found to be patchy with Middlesbrough, Sheffield and Sunderland coming top in terms of availability, while Bournemouth, Southampton and Cardiff came bottom. London came fifth from bottom, with more than 25% of those with mobile phones said to have no access to 4G coverage.
Big cities are said to be struggling to deliver reliable 4G coverage due to the difficulties associated in building masts in built up areas.
“These latest findings underline the need for Ofcom to keep the pressure on mobile operators, so that every part of the country gets a decent service,” said Alex Neill of Which?.
While Which? called for the Government to work more closely with Ofcom and the network providers, Ofcom said it agreed that mobile coverage needed to be improved and that it ‘understood’ the importance of reliable mobile broadband. But it pointed out that geographical coverage had improved markedly – from 8% in 2015 to 40% in 2016 – while the availability of a 4G mobile signal was much higher when measured by the proportion of households and premises it reached, up from 28% to 72% between 2015 and 2016.
The report comes as Ofcom is preparing for an auction of airwaves for the potential rollout of next-generation 5G services.
