The UK's first 4G network - Everything Everywhere - is set to expand to 17 new areas by March, reports TechCrunch.
The 17 towns that will get 4G by March are: Bradford, Chelmsford, Coventry, Doncaster, Dudley, Leicester, Luton, Newport, Reading, Rotherham, St Albans, Sunderland, Sutton Coldfield, Walsall, Watford, West Bromwich and Wolverhampton. Once this phase of the rollout is complete EE’s 4G network will reach approximately four million more people across the UK. It’s aiming for 98 percent population coverage by the end of 2014.EE’s 4G is currently available in 14 UK towns and cities: Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Derby, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield and Southampton. Four more will be switched on by the end of the year: Belfast, Hull, Maidenhead and Slough — bringing the 2012 total to 18, two more than EE original planned at this stage of its rollout.The carrier said it is continuing to bolster network density in areas where it has flicked the 4G switch, by enabling 4G on “an increasing number of masts”. Engineering work will continue in each area until 4G coverage “matches that of the EE 2G and 3G network”, it said. It is also upgrading its network’s mobile backhaul to support “superfast speeds” — adding Gigabit Ethernet capacity.
At the moment EE has a monopoly on 4G. The UK's other networks are expected to get services up and running next year after the Government finally sells off the wavebands needed, using spectrums vacated by analogue TV.EE has previously declined to specify how many people have signed up for 4G — beyond saying “thousands” had signed up for 4G and its new fibre broadband product. Today it has repeated that “thousands” of new customers are signing up, so it’s difficult to quantify the level of demand for 4G.
(Source: TechCrunch)
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