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October 3, 2012

EE 4G service rolls out on 30 October

EE is the first mobile operator to receive regulatory approval from Ofcom for 4G service in the UK.

By Tineka Smith

4G LTE logo

EE’s 4G service will roll out on the 30th October 2012 in ten cities but will available to a third of the UK population in 16 cities by the end of the year.

"We are delighted to announce that the official launch of our new customer brand, EE, offering the UK’s first superfast mobile 4G and fibre broadband service," said EE in a statement.

EE is the first brand in the UK to offer mobile 4G LTE service, which offers mobile internet speeds five times faster than 3G.

EE plans for their coverage to reach 98% in further towns, cities and rural areas by 2014.

The mobile operator’s 4G services will be available on the iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy SIII LTE, Nokia Lumia 820 and 920, HTC One XL and the Huawei Ascent P1 LTE.

"This is a significant milestone for the United Kingdom, and for the people and businesses of our country who will now be able to enjoy the huge advantages of superfast 4G technology for the first time," said EE. "We are very proud to be pioneering, innovating and leading our industry in launching 4G for our nation through our new EE brand."

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The company plans to invest over £1.5bn in the next three years towards its network and fast 4G LTE mobile broadband services.

Despite EE’s 4G mobile services launching the end of this month, pricing for 4G services still remains a mystery.

"We still do not have details about pricing for these new services, which could have an impact particularly on consumer take-up of services," Patrick Clark, head of telecoms at Taylor Wessing told CBR.

"The key advantage is speed – with recent tests showing that 4G speeds are around 8 or 9 times faster than equivalent 3G services. This is likely to result in a large increase in the usage of video on the move, with services like iPlayer, Netflix, YouTube and Sky Go all likely to see a shift from the home to the mobile environment once networks are in place to support it."

Clark also pointed out that business use of 4G is likely to result in the expansion of mobile video conferences and making mobile access to cloud based offerings more viable.

Please follow this author on Twitter @Tineka_S or comment below.

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