The UK’s smallest operator, 3 UK, is in no rush to get its LTE network up and running as it believes the quality of its 3G coverage will stop customers defecting to rivals that offer 4G sooner, Bloomberg reports.

Speaking at the announcement of the company’s latest results, chief executive Dave Dyson said that despite the company having the opportunity to “move quite quickly” with the 800MHz spectrum, it will be “towards the end of the year” before it launches LTE.

In contrast, Vodafone and O2 plan to launch their LTE services in the next few months. EE is the only UK operator currently offering LTE, after launching its network in October.

However, Dyson said customers are not concerned about the underlying technology as long as they can consume the data they want. He added that 3 UK’s current network “stacks up very well” and that the latest version of 3G and early versions of 4G are not “dramatically different”.

3 UK acquired spectrum suitable for LTE in February’s 4G auction and has also agreed to buy airwaves from EE. The operator has previously said it will not increase prices when it launches LTE, offering it as a standard service.