Superfast 4G mobile access reached its 100th town this morning, as network EE sought to capitalise on its head start with the new technology. It named the Lancashire town of Accrington as the milestone development, announcing a new tranche of 4G deployments that will take high-speed mobile access, commonplace in America and Asia, to 105 UK towns and cities by the end of the month.
Rival networks O2 and Vodafone begin to launch their networks tomorrow, but will be live in just a handful of major conurbations and will offer only half the speeds EE is claiming in some areas.
Vodafone is to launch initially only in London, and says it will be available in major cities including Birmingham, Bradford, Coventry, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield before the end of the year. O2 will launch in London, Leeds and Bradford tomorrow, and in 10 more towns by the end of the year.
Vodafone has, however, started what some analysts expect to turn into a full-blown price war, with its cheapest package offering an unlimited data allowance for the first three months.
EE said that this month it would also be turning on 4G in Ashford, Bicester, Colchester, Guildford, Milton Keynes, Redhill, Sevenoaks, Tunbridge Wells and Woking, claiming that it now covers 60pc of the UK population, with its ‘double-speed’ service already stretching out of London to smaller areas including Sunderland, Sutton Coldfield, Walsall, West Bromwich and Wolverhampton.
Source: The Telegraph
