EE Deploys 200 Small Cells to Boost Urban UK 4G and 5G Cover

Mobile operator EE (BT) has today announced that they’ve deployed 200 units of a new type of small cell (tiny base stations) on UK street furniture and buildings in order to boost the coverage and speed of their 4G based (mobile broadband) network, which they claim allows “customers to benefit from download speeds up to 300Mbps.”

Unlike larger base stations and masts, small cells are only designed to deliver limited coverage and tend to be more focused on busy urban areas (e.g. shopping malls) or specific sites (e.g. airports and ports). But they have sometimes also been used to help coverage in the central area of some rural communities too.

Working in partnership with Nokia, EE has been using network analytics to identify areas where small cells will deliver a boost to network performance. The operator then deploys such cells, which in this case use EE’s licenced 1800MHz and 2600MHz (2.6GHz) spectrum bands, which are also are coupled with unlicenced 5GHz spectrum.

The move marks the first time we’ve seen a major UK mobile operator deploy small cells that combine unlicensed and licensed spectrum in a single 4G small cell. “Using Licensed-assisted access (LAA) allows network operators to exploit the additional capacity of 5GHz spectrum for a downlink to the mobile phone. Not only does this provide additional capacity, but also improves the quality of service,” said EE.

However, the claimed speed of ‘up to’ 300Mbps is obviously subject to the usual high variability of the mobile environment and consumer demand.

David Salam, EE’s Director of Mobile Networks, said:

“EE has been the number one network for eight years running and we are committed to maintaining the best possible customer experience. Investment and innovation are the key to consistent network improvement and this partnership with Nokia, to deploy small cells to support our 4G – and in the future, 5G – network, is a new solution to maintain our network leadership in the UK.”

So far 200 of these new small cells have been built, with most going live across cities and towns such as Leeds, London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Newcastle, Nottingham and Scarborough. The operator states that “hundreds more small cell deployments” are planned in the next 18 months, as EE uses the technology to bring additional network capacity to more locations, including some summer hotspots.

On top of that, EE plan to extend their use of small cells to its 5G network, with trials expected to begin soon. Nokia’s AirScale kit can also be seamlessly upgraded to 5G.