So Ed Richards is pleased that along with the four existing operators - Vodafone, O2, EE and Three - the winners include a new player, Niche.

BBC: 4G: The results are in

For me that means an overnight trip from Edinburgh to London is going to use up a month of data on the lowest EE tier in three days of work.

FORBES: High Speed And High Cost, Everything Everywhere Opens For 4G Business In The UK

The UK's fourth biggest network - Three - is set to take over part of EE's 4G spectrum, but is not due to do so until September 2013.

BBC: 4G: UK's mobile phone networks in crunch meeting

The iPhone 5 is the first of Apple's handsets to support 4G, but it has been optimised for just three spectrum bands - the 1800MHz band, which EE has been allowed to use for 4G services, the 850MHz, which doesn't work in the UK, and the 2.1GHz band, which currently only supports 3G services.

BBC: 4G talks ongoing to speed up auction process

Three is also set to take ownership of some of EE's existing 4G-spectrum, but will not do so until September 2013.

BBC: 4G timetable agreed by UK mobile network operators

How much progress EE will make in terms of coverage, and how they will react when Vodafone, O2, and Three, bring some competition to 4G pricing during 2013, will determine their market share over the next year or two.

FORBES: High Speed And High Cost, Everything Everywhere Opens For 4G Business In The UK

Figures from Ofcom reveal that Orange, now known as Everything Everywhere (EE), generated almost twice as many complaints per thousand customers in 2012's third quarter than in the three months before.

BBC: Orange tops broadband complaints chart