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Britain’s mobile coverage is so patchy that almost half the country struggles to browse the internet, data have revealed.
The four mobile network operators have “acceptable” coverage across just 55pc of the country’s landmass on average, leaving large swathes of the population with sluggish connections, according to figures compiled by mobile data firm Streetwave.
The research appears to underscore concerns among Britons that shoddy mobile signal is frustrating consumers and damaging productivity.
Kester Mann, an analyst at CCS Insight, said the analysis “highlights, once again, the disappointing performance of UK mobile networks”.
He added: “This is a combination of several factors, including a lack of investment from the industry, the mandated swap-out of equipment from Huawei, environmental push-back against the deployment of new masts and burdensome planning restrictions.”
The research found significant disparity between the performance of the UK’s four mobile networks.
EE’s coverage levels were the highest at 69pc, followed by Vodafone at 61pc. O2’s acceptable coverage reached just 50pc, while Three lagged well behind on 38pc.
Overall, however, the results for all providers are below the official data compiled by regulator Ofcom in September stating geographic 4G coverage is in the range of 88pc to 89pc.
Sir Terry Matthews, the Welsh billionaire and an investor in Streetwave, said the data were “enabling the industry to have a candid conversation around how coverage can be improved in the UK, while empowering consumers to make informed choices about which mobile network best meets their needs”.
An operator is considered to have “acceptable” coverage where their network provides users with 5 Mbps download speeds, 2 Mbps upload speeds, and latency below 40ms on any connection ranging from 2G to 5G.
These are the speeds at which most mobile functions including browsing the internet, streaming videos and joining conference calls can be carried out. Any drop below this level would be likely to result in a compromised user experience, such as videos buffering and images taking time to load.
The survey was conducted in 113 councils across the UK, representing 37pc of the UK’s geography and around 19m people. It was carried out by attaching signal readers to rubbish collection lorries, measuring mobile performance outside virtually every home and business in each council area.
Mobile UK, which represents mobile network operators, said it disputed the findings of the research.
A spokesman said: “While we acknowledge that all models, including our own, involve predictive elements, Streetwave’s conclusions are based on an extremely limited dataset, derived from just a third of councils across four nations, and are heavily skewed towards rural, low-population density areas. This significantly restricts its applicability to the broader UK mobile landscape.