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The Open Policy Group has released a report (pdf) that says British businesses will lose hundreds of millions of pounds due to the delay in the 4G mobile spectrum auction.
The group claims that faster downloads would save business 37 million hours, equating to a cost of £732 million annually.
"Visitors to Britain will first notice London’s lack of 4G mobile data when they arrive for the Olympics next year," says Open Digital boss James Firth.
"In addition to the lost time through slow mobile data, UK businesses won’t be able to fully benefit from new cloud-based business tools until the UK has a nationwide reliable high speed mobile data network."
Open Digital is calling on Ofcom to adopt more ambitious roll-out targets and for the government to acknowledge the "massive benefit" to the economy from 4G mobile data.
While 4G services have already launched in many countries worldwide including the US, Europe and Australia, Ofcom doesn’t expect a next-generation mobile service to launch in Britain until 2013.
