Everything Everywhere Claim 74 Percent of Brits Want 4G Broadband ASAP

Mobile group Everything Everywhere (Orange UK and T-Mobile) has used YouGov to independently survey 2,033 British adults in order to discover that 74% of people apparently want to bring “4G” superfast Mobile Broadband services to the country as soon as possible. Funnily enough the result is also exactly what EE would want to hear.

Naturally Everything Everywhere has a vested interest in ensuring that Ofcom allows it to use the 1800MHz (currently 3G) band for “4G” before the end of 2012, which the regulator had initially promised to do until rivals (O2, Vodafone and Three UK) waded in with some fairly heavy, and in some cases even justifiable, criticism (1800Mhz decision delayed).

Olaf Swantee, CEO of Everything Everywhere, said:

“Consumers are calling for the fast and reliable broadband that 4G LTE can provide – and they want it now. With nearly three dozen countries, including many parts of Europe, Asia and America having already rolled out 4G, it is imperative that the UK moves forward with building a 21st century digital infrastructure as soon as possible.”

Some additional research apparently also showed that the primary reasons why 74% wanted “4G” services ASAP was because 66% think the UK needs to catch up with other countries, 58% want faster mobile internet connections and 45% think it is important for the economy and job creation.

The study is expected to be an opening salvo as EE gears up to try and convince everybody, from the public to politicians and private businesses, of the need for 4G; even though they’ve also played a part in helping to delay the release of related spectrum.

Meanwhile rivals are perhaps understandably unhappy about the idea of EE being given a head start. Freeing up the 1800MHz band would allow EE to launch 4G in 2012 instead of late 2013 / early 2014 as planned for everybody else via the Q4-2012 auction of 800MHz and 2.6GHz spectrum. Ofcom remains adamant that it doesn’t see any competition concerns.