First Superfast 4G Network in UK Launches Today

[Maura]

iPhone and iPad users in the UK had some great news today with the launch of the first ever superfast 4G network in the UK, from EE. The service kicks off in 11 major cities in the UK: Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Sheffield and Southampton. EE says that its 4G rollout will increase by 2,000 square miles every month in the UK, with the service spreading to five more cities by Christmas. EE says that it expects 98% of the population in the UK to be covered by the end of 2014. EE says that this will be the fastest rollout of any UK network in history, with 4G coverage being made available to around 2 million people in Britain every month between now and the end of 2014. EE also highlighted today the results of the first ever global study into 4G’s business benefits, which found that 74% of UK businesses intend to adopt 4G within 12 months, with 85% of businesses polled in Newcastle saying that they would roll out the service within 12 months, and 78% of London businesses saying the same.

Source: EE

 

[therealriley]

Check out the data charges too..... Ouch!
I'm going to wait a year when the other networks bring it out. EE are hoping to snatch a lot of customers with this but the charges reported on bbc app show your not going to be able to do streaming tv without burning out your data allowance.

 

[KevinJS]

Wireless data charges are going to be a problem for a while yet. There is simply not enough competition yet to drive prices down. In any other industry, the situation would be considered a cartel, but the telecoms have us over a barrel.

Hopefully, new technologies for data transmission will appear, and light a fire under the telecom and cable companies. The demand is certainly there, and can only increase over time, but already the system seems to be stretched to it's limit.

I wonder if this is actually the case, or whether supply is deliberately being throttled to artificially create demand?

I just checked the Telus website (Canada) and it appears that there is no additional charge for higher speed, be it 4G or LTE. The charge is for the amount of data, regardless of the speed.

 

[therealriley]

The contracts are 24 months too, so even when the competition comes into play you will still be stuck in a lengthy contract. 500mb for £36 is nothing short of a rip off. I could burn that off in less than five minutes. 8Gb for £56 compared to my 10GB for £15 3G package (and i use every last byte) seems ridiculous.

 

[KevinJS]

So it costs you £36 to get what costs me $20. That $20 works out to around £11.20. Aha, but in North America they have economies of scale, so that's why things are cheaper there. WRONG. There are as many people living in your county (I know, cos I used to live there) as there are in my province, and that province is 5 times the size of England and Wales. Ripoff Britain rides again.

 

[therealriley]

Same old same old. It's a shame because they are kinda new to the scene and I would love some new competition to the market but they have just blown themselves out of the water with this one.

 

[KevinJS]

I'm beginning to understand now how this works. EE intend nationwide coverage within two years. This is going to take some serious cash to get the infrastructure in place, so the initial customers in the 11 major cities are effectively going to pay for it.

So after about 2015, once the money starts rolling in and all costs are recouped, you might start to see a drop in prices, or at least no increases. And if other companies have to piggyback on part, or all, of EEs system, their customers might actually end up with the cheapest service.

 

[therealriley]

I agree. People should just simply not bother with 4G and show the UK companies were not interested and won't accept them prices. But as usual we will just go along with it and moan about it later.