Vodafone has launched a major investment project that will enable a further three million UK consumers to connect to its mobile broadband service.

People in Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester and Reading will be able to receive download speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps once the network expansion is completed this autumn.

The upgraded service will also employ HSUPA (high-speed uplink packet access) to provide a maximum upload rate of 1.8Mbps, up from 300Kbps.

Access to the 3.5G network, launched last year, was initially restricted to some locations in London and British airports as Vodafone tested the market.

Recent research from Broadband Expert suggested that the average mobile broadband speed received by UK consumers is only 1.46Mbps, less than half provided by average home connections.

Vodafone recorded the highest industry speed of 2.3Mbps, T-Mobile came in second with a speed of 1.1Mbps while 3 finished last with 1Mbps.