EE 4G Coverage Comes To Blackburn, Halifax And Ten Other Towns

Twelve more towns can now receive EE 4G, bringing the total number of locations covered by the UK’s first LTE service to 117.

Ashby-de-la-Zouch, Beaconsfield, Blackburn, Burton upon Trent, Coalville, Chester-le-Street, Fleet, Gerrards Cross, Halifax, Hinckley, Houghton-le-Spring and Reigate are the latest towns to be added, meaning EE 4G now reaches 60 percent of the UK population and ensures the operator is on course to reach its target of 98 percent coverage by the end of 2014.

“The whole country is excited about 4G, and today we’re making the UK’s fastest 4G network available to people and businesses in even more towns around the UK,” says Olaf Swantee, EE CEO. “The latest mobile devices are best on 4G, and we’re switching on that superfast experience in more places before the end of the year, making it accessible to even more people.”

EE 4G Coverage

EE 4G has benefited from a ten month head start of its rivals, but its virtual monopoly on 4G ended last month when O2 and Vodafone launched competing services. This advatange means it has wider coverage and faster speeds for the time being, having doubled the bandwidth available in a number of major UK cities.

It remains the fastest network in London, with independent research firm RootMetrics  determining an average speed of 22.7Mbps using a mixture of 3G and 4G, with an average 4G-only speed of 29.6Mbps, around 20-30 percent faster than the competition.

However, analysts note this advantage will not last forever and believe the market will become a level playing field as EE’s competitors continue their rollouts. Three is the only major operator not to have launched an LTE service, but will launch its offering in December at no extra cost to subscribers.

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