Everything Everywhere, which runs Orange and T-Mobile in the UK, says it’s accelerating the integration of its two mobile networks and will upgrade its network technology. These plans, which will see over £1.5 billion spent during the next three years, also involve preparations for the rollout of 4G mobile technology.
The company says it’s now in the final stages of what it called ‘the big switch on’; enabling Orange and T-Mobile customers to use 2G and 3G signals from either of the networks, resulting in the UK’s biggest 3G network. In the first half of 2012, Orange and T-Mobile phones will start to select the stronger signal from either network automatically if their own signal is weak.
Other plans for 2012 include a programme to streamline network sites.
Olaf Swantee, CEO of Everything Everywhere, said “With mobile data increasing 250% over the past two years, we are making these investments so we can deliver on our ambition to provide the UK’s most reliable, biggest and best mobile data network. We believe that the UK requires a 21st century infrastructure and are committed to rolling out 4G as soon as possible to support growing data use, connect parts of the country with little or no mobile broadband, and drive economic growth.”
Over the last year, Everything Everywhere says more than 22 million customers have benefitted from network sharing, using 326 billion kilobytes of data, making 1.33 billion calls and sending 5.5 billion texts while using a signal from the alternate network.