EE Teams Up With Qualcomm And Huawei For Major 4G Speed Boost

EE has announced a major breakthrough in its attempts to provide the fastest mobile internet speeds in the UK.

The operator has revealed it partnered with Qualcomm and Huawei for tests of superfast LTE Category 9 connections, which can enable downloads of up to 410MBps, and could give EE incredibly fast download speeds in the future.

The test, which EE says was the first of its kind in Europe, used Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 mobile processor, which includes an integrated LTE-Advanced modem, and Huawei’s commercial infrastructure solution, across EE’s LTE-A ‘4G+’ network.

Super-speedy

“Working closely with the excellent teams at Qualcomm Technologies and Huawei on the next generation LTE Category 9 connectivity enables us to make full use of our spectrum holdings, and continue to offer world class network capabilities, innovating to stay one step ahead of operators in Europe,” said Tom Bennett, director of network services and devices at EE.

There is no news on when the network might be deployed in the UK, but EE promised to show off these superfast speeds at a test event in London’s Wembley Stadium sometime next year.

According to the companies, the test has proved that EE can aggregate 20MHz of 1800MHz spectrum with another 20MHz of 2.66GHz, and a third carrier of 15MHz of 2.6GHz.

“We are excited to work with EE and Huawei in ushering in the latest evolution of wireless connectivity,” said Enrico Salvatori, senior vice president & president of Qualcomm Europe.  “Transitioning from Category 6 to Category 9 LTE-A connectivity will mean 1.5x faster peak download speeds, swift application response times, reliable connectivity and connections to the fastest networks.”

Ofcom revealed last month that the UK currently enjoys an average 4G speed of 15.1MBps, meaning any development on this scale could prove a major step forward for EE. The operator was hailed as providing the fastest network speed across five major cities across the UK, with its average of 18.4Mbps comfortably beat out its rivals.

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