Among other things, 4G promises to improve web browsing speeds while on the move and make a host of other mobile applications much more feasible.

BBC: Ofcom to open up airwaves for 4G mobile services

During these times, it might take two or three attempts to connect, there would be three or four times as many dropped calls, web pages may freeze and browsing speeds would be much reduced, the report said.

BBC: Turtle road sign

France Telecom said slow data speeds on African mobile networks made it hard to support full blown web-browsing.

BBC: Egypt phone

"In the worst situations, download speeds may be under 1Mbps for lengthy periods of time, making video streaming impossible and even web browsing difficult, " it said.

BBC: Turtle road sign