The spokeswoman went on to say that Ofcom has "spent several years refusing to carry out a fair and open auction" and this decision now means that EE and Three had "massive incentive to further delay it", providing the sale of 1,800MHz to Three goes through.

"We firmly believe that a fully competitive market for 4G services is in the best interests of Britain. We have already committed ourselves to reach 98 percent of the UK population with indoor 4G services by 2015 - two years before Ofcom's own target - but we need to acquire spectrum in the auction to achieve this. Ironically, all that stands in our way right now is the regulator," she said.

However, EE did confirm that when it initially requested approval from Ofcom that not all of its customers will benefit from the faster services immediately. An EE spokesperson said that the rollout of 4G services will occur on a "region by region" basis, and no details of timelines could be provided.

Computerworld UK contacted Ofcom for a comment, but the regulator declined to respond to Vodafone's accusations.