EE Boosts 4G Mobile Network Coverage in Ceredigion, Wales
Broadband ISP and UK mobile operator EE (BT) has announced that they’ve boosted their 4G mobile coverage in the Welsh county of Ceredigion by upgrading services at over 10 mobile masts. The work forms part of more than 150 other locations across Wales where EE has expanded 4G under the £1bn industry-led Shared Rural Network (SRN) programme.
The SRN – supported by £500m of public funding and £532m from operators – involves both the reciprocal sharing of existing masts in certain areas and the demand-led building and sharing of new masts in others between the operators (MNO). The target is to extend geographic 4G coverage (aggregate) to 95% of the UK by the end of 2025, which falls to 84% when only considering the areas where you’ll be able to take 4G from all providers.
The recent work in Ceredigion has, for example, seen EE strengthen its 4G connectivity along two of the county’s major roads, the A44 and the A487, as well as in several towns and villages including Aberystwyth, Aberteifi (Cardigan), Llangrannog, and Morfa Borth amongst others.
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EE’s mobile connectivity has also been boosted at popular locations such as Aberaeron Beach, Llangrannog Beach, Teifi Estuary, Bwlch Nant yr Arian Forest, Ynyslas National Nature Reserve and along the Wales Coast Path in Cardigan Bay.
Greg McCall, Chief Networks Officer at BT Group, said:
“Ceredigion is famous for its Cardigan Bay coastline and the wild Cambrian Mountains. It is also one of the most sparsely populated parts of Wales. These new 4G upgrades will not only mean residents will be able to stay connected to the people and things they love most, but businesses and community groups can use our network to offer new services and experiences to the many tourists who visit every year.
Having brought our 4G connectivity to a further 1,600 rural locations across the UK as part of our significant contribution to the Shared Rural Network, we have gone further than anyone to deliver reliable mobile connectivity for rural communities who need it most.”
In terms of EE’s own service, the operator recently reported that their geographic 4G mobile network overage in each individual nation now stands at: England (94%), Northern Ireland (89%), Scotland (77%), and Wales (86%).
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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As someone who delivers around a large part of ceredigion I must say that EE are not just bragging for the sake of it. Some of the locations where they’ve added new masts is quite frankly remarkable. Some very rural locations and mountainous terrain. It’s transformed my work life as I can now stream my music uninterrupted and I can use mapping apps to find customers homes. EE were already ahead of the other networks in this area but thanks to these upgrades they are leagues ahead.
I too would be celebrating delivering an old tech (4G is 14 years old?) and being paid by the taxpayer to do so via SRN and ESN, so of course this is fantastic for EE. Locals should have demanded EE take these sites straight to 5G, but perhaps EE will get them to pay for this in future and herald it another success! Now there’s a cunning plan 🙂
4G holds up fine in the vast majority of rural wales. EEs 1800 holdings mean you have 40mhz of spectrum.
I’m currently in Wales and the local EE mast is just 40mhz of 1800 and 5mhz of 800. Download speed 110Mb. What does 5G bring to the table that the current deployment isn’t?
O2 and Three are both hopeless. O2 is just 10mhz of 800 and Three has just 5mhz of 800. Both are around 1Mb.
It doesn’t matter if it’s 4G or 5G, it matters how much spectrum is deployed.
Fair point, its an improvement but could have been so much better, especially given the tourist numbers that visit West Wales, will it all hold up on 4G?
The new masts may only be 4g but it’s better than having no signal like the other networks. I’m also getting 200+ Mbps on the new sites so that will hold up just fine for the considerable future. I’m sure it will be an easy upgrade to 5g when needed too.
You won’t get 200Mbps on Aberaeron Beach with EE, I tried it today and got just 20Mbps and a full signal too – but it was raining lol!
Where EE needs to play catchup is 5G in rural-ish areas, even if just “matching” Three (with whom they usually share masts)
Case in point: Holt Norfolk. Outlier 5G from Three (and I have been trialling a 5G home broadband service from Three since my Openreach line died–flat out hard disconnect and couldn’t get reconnected quickly). only 4G from EE on the same mast.
PS: I have a Samknows whitebox on my Three 5G, from the dashboard the speed bounces around quite a bit (always better 80 Mbs, usually around 160, and OpenReach FTTC would only be 36) even though I have a reasonably signal, 700m near LoS from mast, a bit shadowed by nearby 2 story houses, router indoors in window facing the mast, router lights are usually “blue” for signal with occasional dips into green. I have nudged SamKnows to let them know that I may be a unique data point for their collection.
Considering exsternal antenna on the existign TV aerial mast to get a bit ore out of the shadow (putting router in loft) but I don’t think I can get 100% out of the shadow.
Meanwhile as a corporate customer we’ve been told that we won’t be getting any better signal in a West Midlands city. “Try WiFi calling”.
It’s fun being stuck on 4G for data only. No VoLTE…