O2 Rolling Out 42 Mbps 3G+ Across UK Cities

We are still a while off getting 4G speeds in the UK as the government continues to drag its heels and face legal challenges in auctioning off the spectrum needed to introduce the technologies. But in the meantime, O2 are upgrading their 3G network in certain major cities in the UK from HSPA+ to DC-HSPA upping the theoretical top 3G speeds available to O2 users to 42 Mbps.

Only certain smartphones and tablets support the extra speed of DC-HSPA such as Apple’s New iPad (3) and the Nokia Lumia 900, but more supported devices are being launched every day. Three is planning on upgrading its network soon as well, and Vodafone has already rolled out their upgrades over the last year but only support speeds up to 28 Mbps.

These small incremental upgrades are all well and good, but the UK has had one of the most vibrant and competitive mobile spaces over the past decade or more, but we have already fallen behind by having not launched 4G services yet. And it doesn’t look like we’ll see any until 2013. If the government was serious about developing new technologies here in the UK, we should at least be starting on a level playing field with much of the rest of the developed world East to West.