Everything Everywhere to launch 4G mobile services across 16 UK cities in 2012
12 Sep 2012
A "superfast" mobile phone network that would allow Britons to watch live television seamlessly and download films in minutes would be available to 20 million people by Christmas, according to an announcement yesterday.
Everything Everywhere, Orange and T-Mobile parent's company said it had switched on its fourth generation of mobile phone networks, 4G, across certain parts of UK well ahead of rivals O2 and 3.
The network underwent tests yesterday and the company said the service would be rolled out in 16 cities including London, ushering in "a new era in communications".
According to Everything Everywhere, the new network, which would operate under a new brand called EE, would work at speeds five times faster than the quickest phone network available in the UK, 3G.
With the service people get on-the-go, uninterrupted fast access to the internet. They would be able to download high-definition movies in minutes and buffering free streaming of television. Existing Orange and T-Mobile customers and subscribers to other networks would need to buy a new handset to use the service.
The firm did not say how much those packages would cost, but announced the eight handsets available: the Samsung Galaxy SIII LTE, other smartphones by Nokia, Taiwan's HTC and China's Huawei, and "one more to come," thought to be iPhone 5 – which is expected to be launched by Apple's chief executive Tim Cook in San Francisco today.