THEY have spent billions buying the technology and millions marketing it. But five years after Britain’s mobile phone operators acquired the licences for third-generation phones, most people have no idea what 3G is.

A study of nearly 3,000 people by Ofcom, the telecoms watchdog, published yesterday, revealed that 85 per cent of people still do not know what “3G” means.

The term was understood by fewer people than other technology, including broadband, fast-speed internet access, digital radio and digital television.

The report, by Ofcom’s Consumer Panel, says: “The language used in the communications sector inhibits many consumers other than the young.

“Knowledge of 3G is particularly low . . . with three in four residential consumers unaware of this term.

“Furthermore, the majority of consumers have not heard of 3G as a term relating to communications services.”

The finding is the latest blow for the mobile operators that spent £22.5 billion acquiring 3G licences in 2000. The launch of the handsets has been dogged by technical setbacks, high costs and poor demand. Even advertising campaigns by companies such as Vodafone appear to have had little impact.

One UK operator famously described the handsets as being hot enough to “fry an egg on”.

Aware that 3G has failed to live up to the hype, operators admit privately that they will use “4G” only as a technical term for the next generation of mobiles. But the operators denied that the report showed 3G had flopped.

O2, Britain’s third-ranked mobile operator, said: “We have consistently said that customers do not buy the technology, they buy the products.”

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