2. Soaring phone and tablet sales could cause network congestion When there's congestion on roads, people call for more roads, wider lanes and so forth, and, when these are delivered, more traffic appears and the problem reoccurs, just on a larger scale. So, while 4G may offer more network space and faster speeds in theory, the reality could be that as millions more tablets and smartphones enter the market, so too the networks once again become overloaded. This doesn't mean it will grind to a halt, but it could be the case that more devices, coupled with new tools that take advantage of 4G, such as HD video, mean we end up not much better off than 3G, which can be frustratingly patchy, inconsistent and, well, slow.