Vodafone UK chief executive Jeroen Hoencamp on Monday said offering eye-catching content to mobile customers is more important than the technology being used to deliver it, as he defended the operator's 4G rollout.

"Wherever we build 4G, we've proved that we can deliver great unbeatable speeds and coverage, but it's not a race to have the highest speeds because when it comes to mobile, speed only gets you so far," he said on Vodafone's blog.

Pitching 4G to consumers is more about showing them what they can do on the network, Hoencamp insisted.

"Customers don't buy 4G for the latest technology – they switch to Vodafone 4G because there's particular content they want to access," he said.

To entice prospective customers, Vodafone has partnered with Sky and Spotify to offer access to mobile music and video streaming services.

"When we showed people Sky Sports or Spotify, for instance, they loved it. 4G is the enabler: content is the real driver of what people do and care about," Hoencamp argued.

The comments come as Vodafone races to catch up with EE, which has established a commanding lead in terms of 4G customer base and network coverage.

Vodafone UK, as well as rival O2, launched their 4G networks in late August 2013, a full 10 months after EE, which was given a head start after regulator Ofcom granted it permission to refarm its 1800-MHz spectrum for 4G in 2012.

Last week, EE revealed that it reached 7.7 million 4G subscribers at the end of 2014. Meanwhile, its network currently covers 80% of the population and is on course to cover 98% by the end of this year.

By comparison, Vodafone's 4G base topped 1 million by the end of June 2014, and Hoencamp revealed on Monday that network coverage currently stands at about 50% of the population. He did not provide an updated subscriber figure.

"It's not about who's got the most coverage…It's more about having the strongest signal," he claimed.

"We'd love to expand the network faster, but it's about doing it right first time; I'd rather do it at the pace we're doing and get it right, than try to go faster and build a thin and flimsy network," he continued. "We only turn 4G on when we have built or updated enough sites."