EE Reaches 50% UK 4G Mobile Broadband Coverage Milestone

Mobile operator EE (4GEE) has today issued a new rollout update that confirms how its 4G (LTE at 1800MHz) based Mobile Broadband network is now available to 50% of the UK population and the service has also gone live in a total of 50 towns and cities.

The operator notes that the latest 13 towns and cities to benefit from its 4G service include Bradford, Bingley, Doncaster, Dudley, Harpenden, Leicester, Lichfield, Loughborough, Luton, Reading, Shipley, St Albans and West Bromwich.

EE currently expects its 4G network coverage to reach 55% of the United Kingdom by summer 2013 when a total of 80 towns and cities should be enabled.

Olaf Swantee, CEO of EE, said:

“With these major milestones of 50 towns and cities and 50% of the population, we’re remaining ahead of our schedule to equip UK consumers and businesses with 4G. Our customers are at the heart of our rollout and we are working hard to deliver 4G to 70% of the UK population by the end of this year, and 98% of the population by the end of 2014.”

The new service claims to offer internet download speeds that are “up to five times faster than 3G”, although today’s update states that customers are seeing average speeds of more than 16Mbps (Megabits per second) and peak speeds of 50Mbps on a “frequent basis“.