London - Nov 1, 2011 - According to Ofcom (Britain’s telecom regulator) more than 27 percent of homes and businesses in the UK can't receive 3G signal for all the UK's five major networks. The highlands of Scotland and mid-Wales, which are both rural with hilly terrain, were named the areas of the UK with the worst 3G signal coverage.

Ofcom also revealed 97 percent of premises and two thirds of the UK landmass can receive a 2G signal outdoors from all four 2G networks. This means around 900,000 UK premises cannot access all four 2G mobile networks.

With respect to digital terrestrial television, 89 percent of homes and firms can access the service, while 91 percent of the UK also has access to Digital Audio Broadcast (DAB) radio coverage.

The research is part of the regulator's first Communications Infrastructure report which must be submitted to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport every three years.

Ofcom says broadband is available through nearly every copper telephone cable in the UK, but 14 percent of residential broadband connections are below 2Mb/s. Superfast broadband connection, which Ofcom defines as 24Mb/s or above, are now available in 58 percent of the UK.

On average residential fixed broadband customers are using 17GB of data per month, which is the equivalent to downloading more than 11 films per month or streaming 12 hours of HD content from the BBC iPlayer service. However, mobile broadband customers use an average of just 0.24GB per month.