O2 in London
I was in London at the weekend and made massive use of my iPhone on Tesco (O2). I found the signal to be good and web access speedy and reliable. I had no problems and found it immensely useful. Maybe because it was the weekend network load was low. Maybe the Tesco APN allows for faster access.
We've used O2 for work for about the last 5 years and I can't say I've ever had any major problems with it. It's not perfect, but show me a network that is.