UPD Everything Everywhere Launch EE for UK 4G Mobile and Fibre Broadband

Mobile operator Everything Everywhere (Orange UK and T-Mobile) has today announced the launch of a third new network and new brand, EE (4GEE), to support the forthcoming launch of its new superfast 4G (LTE) 1800MHz based mobile broadband and fixed line “fibre broadband” ISP services.

Apparently the new mobile network, which is currently being held up by legal squabbles (today’s update), was officially switched on today and can already cover four UK cities including London, Cardiff, Birmingham and Bristol. In total 16 cities are expected to be covered by the end of 2012, which will make related 4G services (average speeds of 8-12Mbps have been predicted) available to about a third of the population (20 million people).

Overall 98% of the UK population should be covered in 2014 (2013 population coverage to reach 70%) with 700 new EE-branded stores being opened. The 16 cities are London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Derby, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield and Southampton.

Meanwhile EE’s additional surprise is the announcement of a new superfast fixed line “fibre” broadband service, which will reach more than 11 million homes and businesses by the end of this year and 66% of UK by the end of 2014. This will make use of BT’s latest Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) technology and should offer speeds of up to almost 80Mbps (EE site states a 58.5Mbps average).

Olaf Swantee, CEO of EE, said:

“Today we launch a new company, a new network and a new brand for Britain. Our plans to revolutionise the UK communications market with a faster network and an exciting new brand for the digital age are built on solid investment and a simple belief that customers deserve better.

We look forward to connecting the country with superfast mobile speeds in the coming weeks, months and years. And it starts today, with the announcement of our new business, our new brand and a new digital infrastructure that our company, our customers and the country can be proud of.”

It’s understood that both the new 4G and Fibre solution will launch to customers “in the coming weeks“. The 4G service in particular will be complimented by a range of new Smartphones (e.g. Samsung Galaxy SIII LTE, Nokia Lumia 920/820, The HTC One XL etc.) and USB Mobile Broadband dongles (e.g. Huawei E589 Mobile WiFi and Huawei E392 Mobile Broadband stick).

It’s noted that EE will also offer “standard broadband via ADSL” in non-fibre areas, which is likely to be a mirror for Orange UK’s existing Home Broadband bundles.

As a side note Orange and T-Mobile customers will continue to benefit. From today – and over the coming months – customers using Orange and T-Mobile will begin to see their phone signal indicator change to EE, whether they are on 3G or 2G, showing that they are on the UK’s “biggest and best network“. This is at no extra cost or change.

UPDATE 12th September 2012

Here’s the promotional video for yesterday’s announcement.