Delay in 4G rollout a disaster, says small business group

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Page last updated at 09:47 GMT, Thursday, 31 May 2012 10:47 UK

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By Dan Whitworth
Newsbeat reporter

The delay in rolling out 4G mobile technology is a disaster for the economy, according to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB).

It says the UK is falling behind other countries like Sweden, South Korea and America.

Officials at the FSB claim the blame lies with the big mobile phone companies which can't agree on when it should be rolled out.

Communications regulator Ofcom is also having to deal with technical problems.

The existing 3G network is patchy across the UK and for 22-year-old Will Harvey it is so slow it's like it's going backwards.

"It's just frustrating," he said.

"It's very slow, very buffering and [you're] always waiting for it to load."

'Worried'

He's one of several hundred people testing the new 4G technology as part of a trial in London.

Will has been using it for five months and says it's lightening-fast compared to 3G or even Wi-Fi.

We're losing ground, we're losing business and we're losing the chance to get ourselves out of recession

Pierre Williams Federation of Small Businesses

"It's faster than my connection at home," he said.

"That's a great thing for me to have out and about, when I need to check my Facebook and Twitter. All those kinds of things."

It's exactly that kind of evidence which the FSB says makes it even more frustrating 4G is not being rolled out across the UK now.

The group's spokesperson Pierre Williams said: "We're really worried with the delay.

"It means that Britain's small businesses are really suffering because they can't take advantage of all the opportunities that good mobile broadband would offer them."

The 4G internet dongle is considerably bigger than the 3G version

The main mobile phone companies - 3, Vodafone, Everything Everywhere and O2 - all want 4G to be rolled out as quickly as possible saying it will be great for consumers.

They claim it will help those in rural areas where internet connections are generally much slower than in towns and cities.

But they're worried about one company getting a head start over the others and want to make sure they all get to start selling their share of 4G technology at the same time.

All of that means 4G won't be available to consumers until about a year from now.