News - EE set to double 4G data speeds in ten cities

[HEXUS]

Potentially taking mobile data speeds over 80Mbps.

Read more.

[GoNz0]

you will be able to hit the cap in 8 minutes instead of 16

[stewis]

In all honesty i thought the same GoNzO but I use 4G on my phone to stream music from the DI.FM at 256k app while out and about while doing some occasional downloading (when i cant wait to get home) and normal browsing and haven't come near my monthly 4gb cap yet.

I just dont see its practical to download huge quantities of data on a mobile phone (although i do have a iPhone 5 so theres no real practical way of getting the data off) unless i tether my phone to a laptop or something.

I welcome the increases of the speeds though could help when i desperately need a large file from our amazon s3 backups but cant wait the time it takes for it to download using the really bad ADSL connection BT provide us in Birmingham City centre (Still no fiber available here!!).

[terriblebugger]

I can't believe the idiocy of their plans. They're blowing their chance to cash in on a 4G monopoly.

[Gitch28]

2 Scottish cities, that isn't justified. Population isn't worth the investment. Brighton and Ipswich should have been chosen.

[Spud1]

Great news for me - given that I live in Manchester, regularly already get 20Mbps or higher on LTE, so I will hopefully benefit from this

As Stewis has I have a 4GB cap on my (work) contract, and I've not come close to hitting it yet..and I primarily use LTE on my phone for streaming (well, downloading) from iTunes match or for online navigation..both things that will benefit from this. I've no desire to start streaming HD movies or downloading large files on my phone - I just don't see the point! In the real world you are very unlikely to hit a 4gb cap, even with the extra speed.

The increased capacity is the big news rather then the speed though, as congestion is the biggest issue with LTE.

Combined with Visual Voicemail activation this is the second really good bit of news to come from EE this year..fingers crossed it keeps on going!

[Andeh13]

The minute you start watching Youtube on a regular basis though and you will eat that Data alive!

also... how much do you pay for that 4gb data limit?

[Spud1]

The minute you start watching Youtube on a regular basis though and you will eat that Data alive!

also... how much do you pay for that 4gb data limit?

£25/month +vat. That's a business deal with 15ish handsets though

[Splash]

2 Scottish cities, that isn't justified. Population isn't worth the investment. Brighton and Ipswich should have been chosen.

Between Glasgow and Edinburgh you have around a million people (according to the 2011 census).

Ipswich has a population of around 133k, Brighton has a population of circa 273k. Not sure your maths adds up there. Also pretty sure that there was a business reason to make that call. There are plenty more densely populated areas than Brighton and Ipswich (source)

[c12038]

But in order to do this they hike up their Tarrif charges to exsisting customers

[spraint]

2 Scottish cities, that isn't justified. Population isn't worth the investment. Brighton and Ipswich should have been chosen.

Yes, Ipswich is such a bustling metropolis.

[crossy]

EE has announced that it intends to double its 4G speeds up to and over an impressive 80Mbps in certain areas. The inhabitants of ten UK cities will be the first beneficiaries of the speed boost. However there are no immediate plans to introduce more generous data allowances for users, according to a report on c-net today.

Well done EE (sarcasm) - this announcement was purely about making headlines wasn't it? Certainly there doesn't seem to be much in it for the users.

In addition to the extra shot of speed, EE intends to extend its network to 80 new locations by June. The company is expecting mobile data traffic to grow by 750 per cent in the next three years.

The extra new locations is of more interest to me, as it's going to be useful to a heck lot more people than a simple headline speed increase is. And personally I can't see EE doing particularly well once the other companies get their 4G "excrement together" - especially Three, who I confidently predict will undercut EE on the value-for-money metric without much effort.

2 Scottish cities, that isn't justified. Population isn't worth the investment. Brighton and Ipswich should have been chosen.

According to the June 2008 EU census Brighton had 139,100 people and Ipswich 145,000, whereas for comparison Edinburgh - the smallest of the two Jocktopolises that you obviously hate has 452,000 ... so that's just under twice the size of your preferred two replacements added together! So I'd love to hear your reasoning for anywhere in Scotland being missed out/deleted - from a commercial point of view your suggested substitution makes zero sense - in which case an uncharitable person would assume some degree of bigotry. Oh, and in pendant mode, EE were rolling out to cities and Ipswich is "merely" a town. Brighton and Norwich suit you better? rofl

(and before anyone accuses me of being a mad haggis muncher - I'm english!)

[keithwalton]

Like most people I suspect i'd much rather they went for increasing coverage than increasing speed. Though does suggest they've been running with significant headroom until they get some competition.

On the note of coverage, they're really quite special near me, a few miles north of my home (banbury) there is some 4g coverage despite next to nobody living there.
There is big area's of 4g to the north west (coventry) and south east (aylesbury and high wycombe) so i'd hope i'm not far off getting coverage at home.

But I have no use for it at home, I have a 76mbit unlimited fibre connection at home.

Where 4g would come in handy for me is at work, at present i'm lucky to get a 2g signal on orange (there is a sweet spot on my desk where it works, everywhere else it doesn't)
though EE are going after 4g speed rather than 4g range

Amusingly there coverage checker says very good for 2g and 3g at work, ha!

[JSanders]

Utilization? Now even MORE underutilized!

[Chaoss]

I've done several years of research around the world, this is the fastest speed with the lowest cap IN THE WORLD!

5GB (or is it 6 now I can't remember) is absolutely ridiculous in this day and age

[fail_quail]

Having recently jumped ship from EE (/t-mobile) I'm now with the lower coverage three network.

And i must say, whilst the coverage is not as good, At least when you have signal it actually works.
I'm not at all missing the constant cycling of airplane mode on the handset to reset/fix the frequent data network stalls on t-mobile. At least with three, i know i'll have actual working data if i have signal...