It's fair to say our appetite for exciting new technology is insatiable here at CNET UK, but occasionally we get so far ahead of ourselves we forget what's going on in the here and now.
Take 4G, for example -- we've had our eyes firmly fixated on this spot on the tech horizon for so long now, we never for a moment stopped to take a look around us. Sure, the pace of Britain's voyage towards faster data speeds has been more Swallows and Amazons than Master and Commander, but I had no idea we were still floundering in 2G-infested waters.
New data revealed today though, suggests 4 million Brits out there haven't even made the jump to 3G yet, and are still faffing about with feeble 2G phones. The baffling stats -- which were kindly tallied up, cross-calculated and otherwise mathematised by Carphone Warehouse partner Geek Squad -- leave me asking one question: why?
3G has been around in the UK for a while now, and on the whole it's meant a marvellous improvement in the quality of our phones and the experience we have using them -- even if the consistency of network coverage and data speeds has been far from perfect. Only this week it was announced that mobile data is four times zippier on average in New York than in London, although hopefully our long, drawn-out buffering days will soon be behind us.
After much squabbling between networks, Ofcom delays and government negotiations, 4G is finally due to launch in the UK on 30 October -- that's two weeks today, folks! -- under the EE network banner.
EE is a collaborative company formed by Orange and T-Mobile, which has niftily nabbed a slice of the 4G spectrum, and will support a range of exciting smart phones, including the iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S3 LTE and HTC One XL.
Check out our data speed test video below to see the new phones perform in all their 4G glory.
Vodafone and O2, inevitably furious over the success of this team effort, have strapped themselves together and are due to reach the finish line of this awkward three-legged race by launching their own 4G networks sometime in the spring next year.
How important are data speeds to you? Are you prepping yourself to sprint into the new 4G era later this month, or are you still dawdling along with 2G? Peg it down to the comments below or linger a while on our Facebook page and let us know.
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Comments 16
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Nikolai Azerbaijan 16 October, 2012 18:27
Maybe because most people use their phones to call and text and therefore won't be buying a phone just because it has a 3G sticker?
lovejoy232 16 October, 2012 18:50
A lot of these 2G phones will be Blackberrys. A lot of companies still use Curve 8520's or similar which I believe are only 2G. My girlfriend has one, which she is finally changing for an S3.
The rest will be the older generation who only want to call and text and buy £20 quid phones from supermarkets.
anonymous 16 October, 2012 18:54
What a pointless article, if someone buys a phone for just for making calls and texting why would they need 3G?
CaptainPicard 16 October, 2012 19:39
2G phones consume less data. I used up my 500MB data allowance on my HTC One X after 2 days browsing only (my home internet was down), whereas on 2G phones its pretty hard to use up 500MB.
anonymous 16 October, 2012 19:39
It makes me very annoyed ....does anyone ask how many of those people
are using 2g because its all they can get??? where I live and work 3g is like 20 miles away in any direction we are totally ignored by the greedy carriers who only want high population areas.
Its the same with fibre optics and B/band we will have to wait like 4 to 5 years I reckon , and in the mean time have to constantly watch adverts and read articles like yours saying how wonderfull technology is ..........yeah right
anonymous 16 October, 2012 19:51
lol brits are so poor
anonymous 16 October, 2012 20:01
There's 2 main reasons as far as I can see, 2G provides drastically better battery life and so it is common for people to simply disable 3G on their phones, I for one do it, this goes hand-in-hand with what anonymous 19:39 stated as the coverage is scarce at best! I live in Cornwall where seeing a H/E or 3G icon on the phone is simply astounding, low and behold we are used to G speeds.
Maybe if the manufacturers concentrated on improving battery life instead of bigger screens, faster processors and faster 3D rendering then we might see something that would actually benefit the average phone user!
Kind of ironic as 4G was piloted down here!
anonymous 16 October, 2012 20:42
I often switch my s2 to 2g to save power, I think quite a few smartphone users do as it's still fine for receiving emails.
anonymous 16 October, 2012 22:17
Errr, wasn't that info from a Carphone Warehouse report dated January 2012 - with the data collected in 2011.
How can this be news?
anonymous 17 October, 2012 09:46
Some us don't have a choice. My landline broadband is stuck at 2Mb since fibre optic is Virgin only in my part of West Yorkshire. Why in the world should I expect my mobile connection to be any different?
The gap between rich and poor isn't only reflected in the economy, but also by a buffering symbol. It seems unusual that the working classes have to tolerate slow internet when we are the most likely to have giant smart televisions in our living rooms!
anonymous 17 October, 2012 10:01
Considering how hit and miss the 3G signal is even in London, is anyone really that suprised?
2G is pretty much my only way of guaranteeing a signal sometimes.
anonymous 17 October, 2012 11:53
3G? 4G? Who needs them ? My first move on buying a mobile is to switch it off
anonymous 17 October, 2012 13:16
no option but to use GSM 2g signal here as nothing else exists ... and even that is patchy!
I just leave 3g switched off ... saves charging battery too frequently
anonymous 18 October, 2012 02:57
This is a pointless article. Apparently, there are still people who use a phone only as a phone.
anonymous 19 October, 2012 12:29
I'm on O2 with an iPhone 4S and don't even have the luxury of 3G in my area so I'm one of those still on 2g :-(
anonymous 6 November, 2012 14:12
"and are still faffing about with feeble 2G phones". Why? Because British 3G is garbage. The signal is poor, and the poor little 3G phones can't cope as their batteries flatten in hours. Perhaps the author has never left his house, but i can tell him that 3G on the move is rubbish, too. (Other countries, predictably, are better.) 3G sucks mud, and 2G more or less just plugs away. Fact.