EE Expand 4G Mobile Broadband to 14 New UK Towns and 18 Big Airports

Mobile operator EE (4GEE) has extended the reach of its “superfast” 4G (LTE at 1800MHz) based Mobile Broadband network to 14 more towns (total 174 towns and cities) and 18 of the UK’s largest airports, which means their service now covers 70% of the population. Commuters on key rail and road routes will also benefit.

The latest 14 towns to go live with their 4G service include Belper, Cannock, Ellesmere Port, Grangemouth, Harrogate, Hartlepool, Keighley, Motherwell, Paignton, Richmond (North Yorkshire), Skelmersdale, Torquay and Widnes.

Similarly the 18 airports include Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, City, Birmingham, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool John Lennon, Bristol, Nottingham East Midlands, Leeds-Bradford, Belfast International, George Best Belfast City, Robin Hood and Blackpool.

EE are also bringing 4G to some of the busiest rail routes this year, such as along the line from London Euston to Birmingham New Street. Later stage two will extend north to Manchester and Liverpool, and south from London Victoria to Brighton. Finally stage three will reach Glasgow by the end of 2014, with coverage said to be expanding all the time.

Olaf Swantee, CEO of EE, said:

“More towns right across the UK now have access to the country’s biggest 4G network, and more people can use it where they need it most – in airports and on the busiest commuter routes. We are leading the way with 4G, with twice as much coverage as any other provider, connecting more customers in more places.

But our network investment in 2014 is not just about giving people faster mobile data – phone calls are still an incredibly important part of the mobile experience, and we’re investing to ensure that people travelling all over the UK can make phone calls in more places and with better quality than ever before.”

As a side note EE also said they were investing around £275 million this year into “improving the quality of phone calls” for people travelling up and down the country (e.g. the UK’s most popular rail and road routes like London Euston to Glasgow Central etc.).

Phone call quality and reliability will also be improved for motorists on the UK’s busiest roads. The M25, M1, M4, M6, M8 and M74 will all be enhanced by summer and the M3, M5, M40, A1(M) and M62 should be covered by the end of the year.