North beats south as UK’s best and worst 4G hotspots are revealed

The UK’s best and worst 4G mobile hotspots have been revealed. It’s good news for the north of England, with Middlesbrough topping the table in terms of availability, closely followed by Sheffield, Sunderland, Leicester and Leeds. Meanwhile, at the bottom of the table (of the UK’s top 20 biggest cities and towns) was Bournemouth, while surprisingly London sits in 16th place.

The report, by consumer watchdog Which? found that 83 per cent of mobile users seeking 4G coverage could in Middlesborough, compared to just 67.5 per cent availability in Bournemouth. It doesn’t make good reading for the south with Southampton and Portsmouth also making up the bottom three.

The report comes after a damning report by the National Infrastructure Commission, ranked Britain’s 4G mobile coverage at a lowly 54th in the world.

In terms of speed, those in Stoke-on-Trent, Coventry, Leicester and Liverpool experience the fastest 4G connections, while – in more bad news for the south – Brighton and Hove ranked as the slowest.

 “The mobile data experience isn’t the same in every city for UK consumers,” said Brendan Gill, the chief executive of OpenSignal, who carried out the research alongside Which?. “Users found signals more often in Middlesbrough than in Manchester and faster 4G connections in Stoke than in London.”

Alex Neill of Which? added: “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 on their mobile phone. Our mobile phone is central to how we live our lives and that is why it is so frustrating when we can’t access emails or browse the internet on the go.”

The government has long pledged greater internet access for the UK. Just last week, a law was passed to ensure greater home internet connections were available to all UK residents, even in the most remote of places.