The UK's 4G infrastructure is in place and ready to go, six months ahead of schedule.
However, not all UK networks are ready for the rollout and probably won't be until the end of the year.
OFCOM auctioned the 800MHz spectrum to telecommunications companies back in February, for a cool £2.3 billion. The wavelength was previously used to transmit TV signals into UK homes, but is also particularly suitable for the 4G network as it penetrates buildings to give a good signal, even whilst indoors.
EE has already launched its own 4G network, transmitting via an 1800MHz spectrum that it owns, offering coverage to at least 60 per cent of the country.
EE has no plans to transmit 4G via the 800MHz channel, despite the improved coverage of up to 98 per cent, but the 800MHz 4G cannot compete with EE’s network speeds, which is almost twice as fast.
According to one analyst telecoms companies are waiting on one thing - the launch of the iPhone 5S. The current iPhone 5 is 4G enabled, but doesn’t work on the 800MHz wavelength that’s available, and they want the new iPhone to be the hook that really sells the 4G network.
EE has enjoyed great success with the iPhone 5 on its 4G network because the device is compatible with its 1800MHz spectrum and the other mobile service providers wish to emulate this success en masse when the new Apple device is launched, which is both annoying for non-Apple users, and a masterstroke of marketing for those who are.
It may be worth sticking with EE for the time being though, as Ovum analyst Matthew Howett said 'In 6 months to a year's time we'll have a technology called LTE Advanced, which allows the operators to pull together all of their different bits of spectrum to make a much bigger block, which means they can then do double speeds; but until then only EE realistically is going to be able to do that.'
by tcrammond via Featured Articles
Posts
No comments: