Superfast 4G, which looks set to revolutionise the way business people operate while on the move, swept into Oxfordshire this week.
We are the latest in a stream of areas across the UK to be switched on to the new mobile phone and Internet coverage.
Five-times faster than existing 3G technology, it makes it incredibly quick to send and receive emails, download files and video call on the move.
Activities once virtually impossible while out and about, including video conferencing, streaming HD clips and uploading and downloading massive files, will be all in a day’s work.
All this is courtesy of Everything Everywhere (EE), the company that runs the Orange, T-Mobile and EE brands, and which started rolling out what is Britain’s first 4G network last October.
It has already signed up 400,000 users nationally, a figure expected to rise to more than a million by the end of this year when rivals O2 and Vodafone enter the market.
EE’s figures include 1,600 businesses with 50 or more employees and small businesses and entrepreneurs are expected to be among others who will benefit most.
But in the week 4G goes live in our patch, critics point out the area covered is relatively small.
EE’s own maps show it confined to Oxford city centre and a small halo, bordered by Kidlington, Cassington, Botley, Boars Hill, Littlemore, Cowley, Wheatley, Beckley and Islip.
Residents and businesses outside this ‘golden circle’ will have to wait until EE has upgraded the network and switched on more 4G masts across the rest of Oxfordshire, which may take another 18 months.
Hugo Pickering, of Cotswold Broadband, which is actively raising funds to introduce broadband services to rural West Oxfordshire, said: “The trouble with wireless services is they don’t fix the problem for anything other than urban areas, because the costs are so great to put in mobile masts around the county. They will provide services in Oxford, Banbury and maybe Witney and Carterton, because those two towns have a lot of service personnel who are high users of services like this because they want to speak to their loved ones, wherever they might be.
“4G is very much an urban solution, rather than a rural proposition.
“The fact that we haven’t even got 3G here in West Oxfordshire underlines the problem. They are not going to suddenly fix all of the 4G in Oxford and West Oxfordshire in one go.
“It will be a long-term programme. I doubt whether it will be viable for them because there aren’t the number of subscribers in rural areas for that economic model to make sense.
“The other point is that 4G is a mobile broadband service, so doesn’t replace a home or a business broadband service.
“Long term, you can’t get away from the fact that any kind of wireless technology has limited spectrum and bandwidth capabilities.”
Former telecoms consultant Dr Ana Canhoto, a senior lecturer and director of marketing at Oxford Brookes University, added: “It makes sense for the operators to deploy 4G in busy places like Oxford city, because that is where they have problems with congested bandwidth.
“Ask yourself, are operators going to put a mast in the middle of the countryside to serve just three or four houses, or in a city centre where it is crowded?”
Despite the lack of coverage in more rural parts, 4G’s capabilities are impressive.
Howard Jones, senior manager for business network at EE, said: “4G is like having your office with you because the speed is the same you have on a fixed-line broadband connection.
“It is particularly useful for anyone needing to send large files, detailed plans or images, for instance design agencies, publishers and architects.
“The other big thing is video conferencing through mobile phone.
“One of the key things about Oxford is the large number of commuters, and people want to be connected the entirety of their day, not just in their office.
“The Oxford population also tends to be technically savvy, so there are many early adopters.
“Upgrading the equipment is crucial and all that work is done by the time we launch in a new area, but be in no doubt, it’s an enormous engineering project.”
Cost-wise, EE says customers will pay a premium of £5 per month more than 3G.

Darren Williams, 25, who set up Kidlington-based online marketing firm Muffin Mouth five months ago, said: “This will really help us improve the way we work with our clients and the speed we get back to them.
“We go up and down to London quite often, so being able to communicate while travelling will be very useful.
“As we do some video work, I can see that it will help transfer, upload and download big files and as a newly-established business, the timing is really perfect for us.”