A BBC survey into 3G coverage across the UK has shown that people who were able to receive a data connection only managed to use a 3G signal for 75% of the time. For almost a quarter of the time they were connecting to 2G GPRS technology.
The survey involved an Android application downloaded by volunteers. Over 44,000 volunteers took part, with a total of 1.7 million hours of crowd-sourced data analysed by broadband management company Epitiro.
A similar project by OpenSignalMaps, which has been collecting data since December 2010, recently said 3G was only available to its testers 58% of the time.
[BBC report; BBC 3G map]