o2 and vodaphone are currently ‘partnering’ to make all of their sites 4G compatible, this means that in mid 2013 MOST of the country will have far better signal quality as well as 4G. The reason EE managed to get ahead was they had spare capacity on their spectrum and it’s only available in 16 cities and will be for some time.
When voda/O2 come online they will blow them out of the water big time. Sit tight for six months is what i’d say. I’ve got generic 5th version of apple smartphone on O2 and I’ve been told it will be a good phone in six months time 😆