I'm curious as to your experiences, For me personally I rarely see the 3G sign on my phone, I am rarely in cities but even in local large towns there is no 3G coverage in fact even EDGE is a luxury, I have never seen 3.5G on my phone even in Belfast City Centre.

O2 customer, by any chance?

I'm actually Orange/T-Mobile

If your phone says "Orange T-Mobile" then you won't get 3G, as you are registered on T-Mobiles network and the agreement is currently on 2G only.

Make sure your network selection is set to "Automatic", and network mode is "GSM/UMTS" or "Dual Mode"

Any news on when the 3g roaming switches on?

From next month....

The 1st?

Mate I 3G all the time and full 3G or 4 bars of it almost everywhere in Belfast City Centre. Think The Bot is 1 of the only places that I get a T-Mobile signal. Have you got a 3G sim ok and your network selection is set to Automatic and not Orange/T-Mobile?

I live near Bristol, but am often in neighbouring towns. On T-mobile, and it's an excellent service. Usualy 3.5G.

Funnily enough, I recently switched from Orange to giffgaff (O2) and found that, whereas I'd almost always just had 3G coverage on Orange, I get 3.5G in most places on O2.. and the web browsing is noticably faster.

i use 3 and they seem to be good coverage everywhere i've been if the signal drops to 1 bar it is still 3g and i can use the internet and app store.

3.5g what is this just a upgrade to 3g ?

speaking as someone who has knowledge of the 3G coverage of the UK, it's actually quite surprising (or should that read: sparse)?

I think the UK has good 3G coverage, mainly depending on network though.

The UK 3G coverage is pretty good compared to other nations, it's not perfect though. A lot of expansion is halted due to locals getting masts refused/resited rather than lack of investiment. 3/T-Mobile seem from my experience across the Scotland & England. Orange and Voda, then O2.
(I travel lots have an Orange iPhone, 3 Dongle & Voda iPad and until recently had a O2 works phone.

Orange & Voda are pretty hard to beat with '2G'

Not long until 3/T-Mobile/Orange 3G Super roaming Network is activated... Maybe 28th of April as it will be Orange's 17 year anniversary!