Marcus Jewell, Brocade UK's Country Manager, said:

"With 4G rollout scheduled for 2015, the UK is lagging far behind our economic rivals. Three years is a long time to wait for high speed mobile Internet, especially when countries like the US and Germany will enjoy the benefits of 4G this year.

But although it is estimated to cost the UK economy £1.5bn in total, this delay is actually a blessing in disguise. Much of our creaking network infrastructure is already having difficulty coping with the number of Internet-connected devices and the inexorable rise of bandwidth-intensive traffic, such as video and unified communications.

It’s important to remember that the UK has never been a true 3G nation, with universal coverage and availability. The move to 4G will be an even bigger step up for all concerned, yet telcos are having a hard enough time responding to the increasing strain on their networks.

When 4G finally brings fixed-line speeds to the millions of mobile devices in the UK it will increase bandwidth by a factor of four; datacentres will see an eightfold increase in data; while storage requirements will be 16 times greater."