EE, the UK’s first 4G network has today announced plans to double the speeds and capacity of it’s 4G network in ten UK cities. Testing for the speed increase has produced lab speeds of 130Mbps and real-world speeds of 80Mbps, although average network speeds for 4GEE customers is likely to be around the 20Mbps mark.
EE is achieving the new network capacity and speeds by doubling the amount of 1800MHz spectrum bandwidth it allocates to 4G, from 10MHz to 20MHz. EE is also forecasting that the amount of mobile data it carries will grow by up to 750% in the next three years, making it even more important that it carries out such upgrades to it’s network.
Who is getting it?
The new 4G capability will roll out to ten existing 4G cities by summer – Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield. Trials of the new technology in Cardiff are have already seen headline speeds reach 80Mbps plus. Once switched on, the improvements will be automatically available in those cities within existing plans to new and current 4GEE customers on all 4G smartphones, tablets and dongles.