EE Becomes Europe’s Biggest 4G Provider

Mike Moore,

However operator also reports fall in revenues due to regulatory pressures

EE has revealed it attracted over 1.4m new 4G customers within the last three months, its biggest ever quarterly growth, as more and more of the UK gets connected to superfast internet services.

The news means that the UK operator is now the largest 4G provider in Europe with a total of 5.6m customers, meaning it is well on target to achieving its aim of six million 4G users by the end of the year.

The company also attracted 178,000 contract connections during the quarter, taking its total number of connections to 31 million, with 6,200 business users, including the likes of MasterCard and Reading Council.

Saltash becomes 250th town in the UK to receive 4G from EE - 30 Jul 2014Growth

The operator, which recently announced a move into the home television market, revealed the news in its third quarter 2014 financial results, where it reported a 1.2 percent fall in revenues to £1.52bn owing to the impact of regulatory cuts.

However it expects to see this rise next quarter thanks in part to its purchase of 58 stores from troubled high street reseller Phones 4u, which should help it to boost sales and provide an increased retail presence across the UK.

“We are delivering consistent underlying performance in a highly competitive environment while continuing to face significant regulatory pressure on our revenues,” said Neal Milsom, chief financial officer of EE.

“We are investing to further innovate on behalf of our customers by delivering not just the best network but also improvements in customer service, a range of attractive EE branded devices, Shared Plans, and soon EE TV.”

EE says that its 4G network covers over 75 percent of the UK population, including 281 major towns and cities (classified by EE as settlements with a population of more than 10,000), and more than 2,500 small towns and villages.

Last month, the operator was named by RootMetrics as the best operator in the UK, but Ofcom says it is the most complained about network too – a reputation that could be exacerbated by the company’s decision to introduce some charges for calls to customer services.

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