EE 4G Arrives In 12 More Towns And Cities

EE 4G is being switched on in 12 new towns and cities across the UK, bringing the total number of locations able to access the UK’s only current LTE service to 71.

The new ‘superfast’ towns and cities are Ashton-under-Lyne, Chatham, Gillingham, High Wycombe, Merthyr Tydfil, Oldham, Oxford, Rochester, Runcorn, Sale, Stafford and Wigan.

EE 4G now covers the homes and businesses of more than half the UK population and has plans to extend coverage to 70 percent of the country by the end of the year. The operator was granted permission to launch an LTE sevice on its existing spectrum last October and currently commands 318,000 EE 4G subscribers.

EE 4G coverage

It hopes to attract one million by the end of 2013, but will face competition from Vodafone, O2 and Three who will all launch 4G networks in the next few months having secured spectrum in the recent Ofcom auction of spectrum.

However, EE 4G remains confident of its targets, promising to double the amount of 1800MHz bandwidth dedicated to 4G from 10MHz to 20MHz, enabling top speeds of 130Mbps in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield, while it will also stock the UK’s first ‘CAT4’ 4G device, the Huawei E5576 Mobile Wi-Fi, to allow users to take advantages of these speeds.

“The pace of our 4G network roll out continues to keep us at the forefront of the UK mobile market,” said Olaf Swantee, chief executive officer at EE. “Just seven months after launch, we’ve covered millions of consumers and businesses with one of the fastest mobile networks in the world.”

Earlier this week, EE 4G revealed a number of 30-day SIM-only tariffs that it hopes will attract customers who do not want to be tied down to a lengthy contract or just want to try out its LTE service.

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