O2 and Vodafone launch 4G

Mobile networks O2 and Vodafone are launching their 4G data services in London for the first time today.

O2's service will initially be switched on in London, Leeds and Bradford, reaching up to five million people from the launch, while Vodafone will roll its service out in parts of the capital.

Both networks plan to have network coverage in 13 cities by the end of the year - London, Birmingham, Bradford, Coventry, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield - and both plan eventually to provide 4G coverage to 98% of the population.

The launches follow on the heels of EE, which has offered "super-fast" 4G mobile data in the UK since October last year.

Guy Laurence, chief executive of Vodafone UK, said 4G was a "step change" that would allow people to watch football matches or download thousands of songs from services such as Spotify on the go.

He said Vodafone had already signed up 20,000 customers to the new service.

"The opportunity to watch football... while you are waiting for something, you are stood at the bus stop, you are at the dentist in the waiting room, you can watch a game live now on 4G and people will flock to that," he told Sky News.

"So I think adoption will be far faster than 3G, which was 10 years ago, because people didn't really know how to use it. It is no good trying to sell technology to people, you have to sell something they want, and they want entertainment."

He added that 4G uses old television frequencies which would allow the signal to penetrate into houses far more effectively than 3G. New planning laws would also allow the firm to erect transmitters in areas it could not before, he said.

"By the end of 2015 we will have 98% coverage. To give you an idea, only 98.4% of dwellings have running water. So 98% is very high indeed."

4G - fourth generation networks - can provide data to smartphone users on average six times faster than 3G connections, Vodafone said.