EE says it is on track for a million 4G customers this year

"4G is going to replace bad broadband," declared Olaf Swantee, the chief executive of the mobile giant EE, as he claimed that the signal from his new super-fast 4G phone network is so strong that customers are not bothering with wi-fi – even in the home.

Some 37 per cent of customers use less or no public wi-fi when they have 4G in their pocket, and one in five use less home broadband, according to EE's research.

Mr Swantee insisted that take-up of 4G is on track as he reported that 318,000 have signed up since its October launch, after refusing to give numbers at the last quarterly results in February.

EE, owner of T-Mobile and Orange, should hit a million 4G customers by Christmas.