11 September 2012

Everything Everywhere launches 4G in the UK tomorrow

Everything Everywhere, owners of the Orange and T-mobile brands are widely expected to launch their 4G brand tomorrow at the Science Museum in London.

Everything Everywhere, owners of the Orange and T-mobile brands are widely expected to launch their 4G brand tomorrow at the Science Museum in London. Having obtained permission from Ofcom to use their 1800MHz frequencies for the service on 21st August, they are stealing a march on their rivals who have to wait for the auction of 800MHz and 2.6GHz bands which isn't expected to start until the end of 2012.

The 4G/LTE (Long Term Evolution) network is technically capable of achieving download speeds of 100MBPS which American real-world experience means 20MBPS is routinely available. Unfortunately America uses different frequency bands for it's 4G services so existing 4G devices won't necessarily work in the UK with EE's offering. In fact, Apple were asked to remove references to 4G on their UK advertising for the launch of the iPad3 as it wouldn't work with our proposed 800MHz & 2.6GHz bands.

Nokia's new Lumia 920 running on Windows 8 is tipped to be the first handset to be offered with 4G on EE's 1800MHz frequencies, though it is not expected to be on sale until November.

Apple's iPhone5 is expected to support 5 radio bands, though it is unknown whether one of them can be dedicated to EE's 1800MHz frequency.

Early adopters of the latest technology aren't the most price sensitive customers but they should be aware that they don't need to purchase insurance when signing up for a contract as specialist gadget and iPhone insurance policies are available with lower premiums.