We often blog about wi-fi hotspots in the UK and abroad, so today we wanted to see what impact the planned universal (well, 98% of the UK!) 3G and 4G coverage have on the prevalence of hotspots?

The majority of people using public wi-fi hotspots only need the internet for short bursts – to check social media, read a few emails or compare the price of a product while shopping. When 3G was first launched as a service, it was unreliable, slow and often hard to access inside a building so the rapid growth of wi-fi services continued unabated. Now the performance of wi-fi and mobile broadband are on a par, with 4G often quicker than wi-fi hotspots in public places, so mobile broadband is the easiest option for these users.

43% of customers signed up to EE’s 4G service said they now rarely needed to use wi-fi hotspots, and turned off the wi-fi connection of their mobile when out and about. Fiddly sign-up forms still required by some hotspot providers also put people off using them if there is quick and reliable 3G or 4G, but these forms are becoming less common as a result.

Wi-fi hotspots will not disappear, with a big plus being that they are usually free, so you can download data and preserve your allowance. Mobile network operators are also working to improve the security of data sent over these networks, and make sure speed and reliability are up to scratch, but there is no doubt that they will become less relevant in the face of increasing 4G coverage.