EE to double 4G speeds by summer for British cities

EE has confirmed that it will be doubling the speeds of its 4G mobile network by the summer, offering improved superfast broadband speeds to all new and existing customers.

Currently the only UK network provider to offer the 4G signal, EE is striving to make its mark on British mobile consumers and aims to bring doubly fast 4G speeds by summer. Ofcom auction winners O2, Vodafone, Three and BT will be launching their own 4G networks by the end of this year.

The double-speed 4G connection will provide EE customers with headline speeds of up to 80Mbps and the average speed will be boosted to more than 20Mbps. This is due to the fact that EE is doubling the amount of 1800MHz spectrum bandwidth dedicated to 4G from 10MHz to 20MHz, providing increased capacity for its customers.

“We are ensuring that the UK remains at the forefront of the digital revolution,” said Olaf Wantee, CEO at EE. “Having already pioneered 4G here, we’re now advancing the country’s infrastructure again with an even fast, even high-capacity network, and at no extra cost to our customers.”

With the network provider already forecasting that mobile data use will increase by up to 750 per cent in the next three years, EE has anticipated this by increasing the speeds offered by its superfast mobile broadband.

“Since we launched 4G, we’ve seen a huge shift in the way people are using mobile. Video already accounts for 24 per cent of all traffic on our 4G network – that’s significantly more than on 3G. Maps, mobile commerce, sat-nav tools and cloud services are all seeing a similar rise.”

Double-speed 4G LTE coverage will roll out to ten already connected British cities by the summer: London, Liverpool, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Bristol, Birmingham, Sheffield and Manchester.

“By rapidly expanding both the coverage and capacity of its network, EE has taken the necessary steps to maintain and extend its advantage in the UK 4G market and, more importantly, to leapfrog itself into a leading position in the European LTE market,” said Chief Research Officer at Informa Telecoms & Media Mark Newman.

Originally launched in October last year, EE has already made 4G available to half of the UK, with a target of one million 4G customers to be reached by the end of 2013.