EE says it’s going to double the speed and the capacity of its 4G network in the UK. As a result, maximum data speeds are expected to exceed 80Mbps with an average of more than 20Mbps.
In addition, EE is dedicating more of its 1800MHz spectrum to 4G service. It’s going to use 20MHz of bandwidth for 4G rather than the 10MHz it had previously set aside.
This increased capacity will be available in ten cities by summer 2013, all of which currently have 4G EE service: Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield. The company’s 4G service is currently offered in fifty towns and cities across the UK.
Olaf Swantee, Chief Executive Officer of EE, said “We are ensuring that the UK remains at the forefront of the digital revolution. Having already pioneered 4G here, we’re now advancing the country’s infrastructure again with an even faster, even higher-capacity network, and at no extra cost to our customers. Since we launched 4G, we’ve seen a huge shift in the way people are using mobile. Video already accounts for 24% 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. Mobile users in the UK have a huge appetite for data-rich applications, and this will only grow as people become more familiar with and reliant upon next generation technologies and services. Our double speed 4G network will provide developers with the quality and speeds needed to develop the next wave of killer 4G apps. Whatever innovations they come up with, we’re ready.”
EE is aiming to have a million 4G customers by the end of 2013. This would represent around 8% of the EE pay monthly user base.