facebook rss twitter

EE announces London mobile data speeds of up to 150Mbps

by Mark Tyson on 30 October 2014, 12:05

Tags: Everything Everywhere, PC

Quick Link: HEXUS.net/qackvb

Add to My Vault: x

EE has written to HEXUS today to inform us that it has flicked the switch to turn on its 4G+ (LTE-Advanced) service in London. The faster mobile data service, which can reach speeds of around 150Mbps, is now live at 150 sites in central London. The fibre broadband rivalling service is claimed to offer speeds on a par with "the world's fastest".

Large parts of London including Shoreditch, Old Street, Southbank, Soho, Westminster and Kensington will have access to EE's 4G+ service. "The UK is now back to being a world leader in mobile networks. Just two years since we were behind every developed market from the US to Japan, we’ve invested in innovation, driven competition and given people in London a mobile network that’s faster than almost any other in the world, and even faster than most fibre broadband available here," said EE CEO Olaf Swantee. He went on to claim that his firm offers "the largest 4G network in Europe."

To experience 4G+ (LTE-Advanced) speeds you don't only have to be in the above mentioned areas. Currently there aren't a large number of mobile devices which support the standard. EE actually only sells two such devices; the Samsung Galaxy Alpha and the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 smartphones. If you are lucky enough to own one of these mobiles and are in the right area of London you can expect speeds to be regularly around the 90Mbps mark, topping out at speeds approaching 150Mbps. We are told that the 4G+ speeds are achieved via carrier aggregation technology, "combining 20MHz in each of the 1800MHz and 2.6GHz bands, enabling a theoretical maximum speed of 300Mbps".

EE says that 4G+ (LTE-Advanced) service will completely cover London by April next year and the firm will start to target the next busiest cities around the UK - Birmingham, Manchester and Liverpool shortly after that date.

In other EE news today the network announced that it had added 19 more towns and cities to its UK 4G coverage with Warwick as the 300th 4G town to go live. Home of 'Last of the Summer Wine', Holmfirth, also got 4G in the latest batch of switch-ons, as did Alexandria (Scotland), Banbury, Biggleswade, Blaydon, Catterick Garrison, Cookstown (Northern Ireland), Garforth, Greenock, Limavady (Northern Ireland), Maltby, Oxted, Penicuik (Scotland), Tring, Waltham Cross, Warminster, Winterbourne, and Ystrad Mynach (Wales).

Finally EE says its double speed 4G (with speeds up to 60Mbps) is now available in 20 places with wide coverage coming to 20 more large towns and cities by the end of the year.



HEXUS Forums :: 25 Comments

Login with Forum Account

Don't have an account? Register today!
How about activating 3G and 4G to 100% of the country before even increasing speeds…….
Utterly pointless. My work phone is 4G and I get a fantastic data speed of 25mbps synchronous. And yet I can't make a phone call! 2G and 3G signal is none existent in my area of London.

Perhaps they should enable voice over 4G before increasing the data speeds.
mark_a_scott
How about activating 3G and 4G to 100% of the country before even increasing speeds…….

This, Some areas have utterly poor coverage for even 2G. Three hasn't been too bad because I have extremely decent coverage for HSDPA+ and coverage for 4G in a reasonable amount.
mark_a_scott
How about activating 3G and 4G to 100% of the country before even increasing speeds…….

I'd settle for them fixing the online account portal, oh and not charging me for the bills I ask them to send me in it's place.

Roll on the end of my EE contract.
Tabbykatze
Some areas have utterly poor coverage for even 2G. Three hasn't been too bad because I have extremely decent coverage for HSDPA+ and coverage for 4G in a reasonable amount.
One of the reasons that I moved to Three to be honest - at least they're promising 4G for my area this year. On the other hand EE have a “we'll get around to it” type attitude - not impressed with the lack of urgency. (Plus the fact that EE seem to be slapping a hefty premium on for 4G).
mark_a_scott
How about activating 3G and 4G to 100% of the country before even increasing speeds…….
I'd agree with this 100%, but I'm sure I read somewhere that 4G has better coverage properties, so it makes more sense to jump from 2G to 4G in areas of no/poor 3G coverage.

Back to the article, I'm getting pretty jaded by the constant “we've got the fastest” PR flap from either mobile or broadband companies, and when you look deeper it turns out to be some small blessed enclave in that area surrounded by the M25 “tarmac moat”. Apologies if you're a Londoner and think I'm putting your manor down - but heck guys, what about the rest of the country? If EE et al want an “attaboy” out of me then I'll do that when we get lower headline speeds but more universally available. Heck, there's areas of my house where I get no mobile signal never mind some fancy pants “4G”.

Although, gotta say, when I do get that “4G” id on my phone, the transfer speeds are damned good. Then again Three seems to be able to deliver pretty good data rates, shame the coverage still ain't the best.