PCCW-owned telecoms group UK Broadband has launched the country’s first commercial Long Term Evolution-based (LTE-based) services in the Southwark district of Central London, Swindon as well as the town of Reading.
The services rolled out under the name of now Broadband, new 4G services will be offered as a substitute to fixed-line home and business broadband for both personal and business clients with a downlink speed of about 40Mbps and upload of 5Mbps.
The service will be offered, mainly in urban areas.
now Broadband CEO Nicholas James said in terms of business benefits, this service can be either the primary superfast internetconnection or provide the secondary or resilient connection to ensure that local businesses and organisations are connected at all times.
"Being always connected is now an essential requirement in today’s business and increasingly cloud based world. It can be extremely damaging if a business loses its internet connection," James said.
"Wireless broadband provides a low-cost, reliable second connection as well as providing significant additional internet capacity to the business."
New 4G services will be offered in four packages as per the requirements for home and business needs: from light browsing and email, to new packages fit for on demand services that include TV, gaming and business applications.
The company has launched the service ahead of mobile network operator EE, whose 4G network is anticipated to be launched on 30 October 2012.
