EE Expands 4G Mobile Broadband Network to 75 Percent of the UK

Mobile operator EE has announced that their “superfast” 4G (LTE) based Mobile Broadband network is now available to 13 new towns across the United Kingdom (i.e. a total of 263 major towns/cities + over 2,500 villages/small towns), which lifts their total population coverage to 75% from 73% last month. The Prime Ministers home town of Witney has also been upgraded.

Apparently the latest upgrades, which include major towns like Buckingham, Burntwood, Chesham, Chesterfield, Dalkeith (Scotland), Glossop, Hertford, Rugeley, Sheerness, Thornaby-on-Tees, Ware, Wickford and Witney, mean that EE’s “superfast mobile Internet” service has now been put within reach of an additional 300,000+ people.

David Cameron, Prime Minister and MP for Witney, said:

“The arrival of EE’s 4G mobile services in Witney is a huge boost for local companies and people living in the area. Now the latest generation of mobile technology has arrived, Witney is now an area where it is even more attractive to live, to work and to do business. The arrival of 4G makes this part of Oxfordshire one of the best connected areas in the UK.”

Olaf Swantee, EE CEO, said:

“4G is now a well-known and well understood technology, with businesses and communities increasingly demanding 4G coverage because they see the significant economic benefit. Our fast, nationwide rollout continues, with hundreds of new sites being switched on every month to bring 4G to more places, often giving people a fast broadband experience for the very first time.”

Sadly EE’s network expansion this year has been slow, pushing population coverage up from 70% to 75% since the start of 2014 and meaning that their original goal of making the 4G service available to 98% of the population by the end of 2014 was now in significant doubt.

However EE informed ISPreview.co.uk at the start of this month that their coverage target would instead fall short at 90%, which they at least partly attributed to concerns over Ofcom’s proposal to “significantly increase the Annual Licence Fee for operators’ spectrum holdings” (here).

Never the less EE will still need to mount a significant effort in order to achieve 90% before Christmas and it looks like they’ve suddenly become a lot more active, which may be related to Ofcom’s recent proposal to revise down the licence fee hike (here).