UK’s First 4G Mobile Service Launches By EE In 11 Cities

Today sees a milestone point with the UK’s fourth generation 4G mobile service arriving in 11 major cities and increasing speeds by huge leaps and bounds, giving the consumer exactly what they want, though controversy about pricing is still a bit up in the air, to say the least.

The major cities that will benefit from the rollout today include London, Bristol, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, Sheffield, Southampton, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Leeds while other cities will see a rollout much later on this year and next. EE are saying that other key cities including Belfast and Newcastle will see these new 4G services by Christmas but for the majority of suburban areas, we will sadly have to wait until next year, but when we do, you should expect to see speeds of between 8 and 12Mbps which is currently around five times faster than the previous “fast mobile internet” service; 3G.

There is still a bit of down-talk though based around the pricing structure and the aim for 4G which EE (previously Orange/T-Mobile) are said to say that 4G will benefit businesses and that it will open a new pathway for streaming multimedia, though as many companies including the BBC have quoted:

An hour of streaming a programme using, for example, the BBC iPlayer mobile app, can use up to 225MB – almost half the entry level tariff’s data allowance limit.

The add-on costs for extra data begins at £3 for 50MB, and extends to £20 for 4GB.

The company’s top tariff for standard customers will cost £56 per month, and has a data allowance of 8GB.

What EE are going to do to respond to this is anyones guess, but while the other mobile networks won’t be able to offer 4G until some time next year, we can’t see EE needing to do anything really, as they are in a lucky situation where you will either pay for it, or not pay for it as you can’t jump ship as normal and switch providers if you are adamant on receiving 4G services.