The Chinese government will reportedly begin issuing 4G licenses (link via Google Translate) by the end of this year or early 2014 at the latest, following news that China Mobile is set to take construction bids for its 4G network as soon as this month. The country’s efforts to build out its TD-LTE network as quickly as possible is a potentially lucrative opportunity for telecom equipment makers… → Read More
The Tech City high tech cluster in London’s East End is getting an extra helping of high speed mobile connectivity from June. Carrier EE, which owns and operates the U.K.’s first and still only LTE/4G network, has announced it is partnering with the Tech City Investment Organisation to install a network of 4G hotspots in “key locations” for businesses in the area to use. → Read More
EE, the U.K.’s first and still only 4G network operator, has broken out 4G-specific customer numbers for the first time — confirming that after five months of 4G trading it has hit a total of 318,000 4G-specific customers. The carrier has previously reported total postpaid 3G and 4G additions for its Q4 quarter, when it said it saw 201,000 net gains in the quarter. → Read More
EE, currently the only mobile carrier offering 4G LTE services in the UK, plans to double the speed of its mobile data network in the country’s 10 biggest cities to 130 megabits per second, as it braces itself for competition from other carriers that are scrambling to get their own LTE networks up and running. In a presentation this morning in London, Olaf Swantee, EE’s CEO, also says that the… → Read More
The first — and still, the only — 4G network in the U.K. is now available to half the U.K.’s homes and businesses. Carrier EE said today it has switched on the network in 13 more towns and cities to hit the 50% population coverage mark five months after the network went live. The company has previously said its network rollout would reach 55% of the population by June. → Read More
Open Garden, one of the finalists at TechCrunch Disrupt New York last year, just launched the newest version of its Android, Mac and Windows app that makes sharing your mobile internet connections even easier. In many ways, this 2.0 release, which the company presented at the Launch conference this morning, fulfills the promises Open Garden made when it first launched. → Read More
Ofcom, the UK communications regulator, has just announced the winners of the UK spectrum auctions for 4G spectrum on the low-frequency 800MHz band, used for LTE and other mobile broadband services. The list is an attempt at playing fair: it includes fixed line incumbent BT; major mobile carriers Vodafone, Telefonica/O2, and EE; as well as smaller mobile upstart Three. → Read More
Being first to 4G may not be quite the advantage EE may have hoped. The U.K.’s first 4G network was up and running at the end of October last year but its Q4 results show the network it picked up only 201,000 total postpaid mobile customers in the quarter — down from 250,000 net adds in Q3, and 313,000 in the year ago quarter. So however many 4G sign ups it’s had it’s not spectacular. → Read More
4GEE, the U.K.’s first — and still its only — 4G network, owned by carrier EE, is continuing to grow its coverage footprint. Currently the network reaches less than half (45 per cent) of the U.K.’s population but by the summer EE will have built it out to cover a majority (55 per cent) of the U.K.’s people. The carrier said today it would be switching on a further 27 towns and cities by June. → Read More
It looks like just 10 percent of mobile data traffic will be based on 4G networks in 2017, according to Cisco Systems’ annual mobile forecast. It’s significant growth from the extent of today’s 4G deployments, which make up just 1 percent of global connections. But with 4G LTE devices like the iPhone 5 becoming common in larger economies, we may feel the technology rift between early adopter… → Read More
It keeps getting worse for French iPhone owners. The agency for telecommunications ARCEP has just announced that it would meet with the four French telcos to know if and when it should refarm Bouygues Telecom’s 1,800MHz band to bring LTE to the iPhone 5. The three other companies are begging the ARCEP to wait until at least 2014 to start this process, effectively lobbying for slowing down… → Read More
The U.K.’s smallest mobile network operator, Three, has committed to offering 4G/LTE technology at the same price as 3G — i.e. with no upgrade fee — when it’s able to add 4G to its network later this year. Three has not specified when that will happen but it’s not likely before September. Three’s premium-less price commitment contrasts with rival EE. → Read More
The fallout from Ofcom’s March 2012 decision to allow the company now known as EE to refarm existing 2G spectrum to build a 4G network continues. Now EE’s rivals, Vodafone and Three, have asked the U.K. telecoms regulator to liberalise their existing spectrum holdings to allow them to run 4G services too. → Read More
4GEE, the U.K.’s first and still it’s only 4G/LTE network just got a little larger. Carrier EE has switched on 4G services in nine more towns, bringing the total number of towns and cities connected to the service to 27 in the 90 days since it launched the network. The network now reaches around 45 per cent of the U.K. population, according to EE — which says the rollout is ahead of schedule. → Read More
EE, the carrier behind the U.K.’s first 4G network, 4GEE, has announced its rollout will expand to 17 more towns by March 2013. It will also increase the network density in metropolitan areas already covered by its 4G rollout. In tandem it’s upgrading its 3G network to fastest variant DC-HSPA and upping the capacity of its mobile backhaul to Gigabit Ethernet. → Read More
The U.K.’s 4G auction process has kicked off, with bidders having until 16:00 GMT today to submit their bids, along with a £100,000 deposit. The window for bidders to submit opened at 10:00 GMT this morning. The spectrum going under the hammer sits in the 800MHZ and 2.6GHz bands — and has been deemed suitable for 4G/LTE services. → Read More
The U.K. government has already put a price on the sale of 4G spectrum frequencies — due to kick off in January next year. Chancellor George Osborne is factoring into his policy decisions the sum of £3.5 billion which he expects to be raised by next year’s 4G spectrum sale. → Read More
The founders behind Karma (no, not that Karma) think that there’s something fundamentally broken in the market for mobile providers. And they’re hardly alone. So, the TechStars grads set out to create a new format, one that eschews the traditional subscription model for a pay-as-you-go approach to mobile bandwidth.
In an effort to realize their vision of providing anyone and everyone with a… → Read More
The U.K.’s first — and currently only — 4G network, run by carrier EE, has announced it is increasing the size of the data caps on some of its mobile broadband tariffs by around 60 percent, while keeping its pricing structure the same. The network has faced criticism for offering relatively small monthly data caps for a high-speed network. → Read More
EE, the U.K.’s first 4G network carrier, has quietly launched SIM-only plans. The tariffs, which allow people who already own a 4G handset to use EE’s network without having to sign up to a two-year contract that includes the cost of a handset, were originally scheduled for launch earlier this month but were delayed by around two weeks — owing to testing processes “over-running”. → Read More
The U.K.’s first 4G network has only just got up and running but telecoms regulator Ofcom is already looking beyond 4G to form a plan for the next generation of mobile network technology — potentially 5G — looking at where the spectrum will come from to support future mobile network capacity needs. → Read More
The rules for the U.K.’s forthcoming 4G auction have been published by telecoms regulator Ofcom. The reserve price for the two swathes of spectrum going under the hammer (800MHz, 2.6GHz) has been set at a relatively modest £1.3 billion — modest when you consider the U.K.’s 3G auction raised a staggering £22.5 billion back in 2000. 4G is expected to raise a lot less than 3G. → Read More
4G carrier EE, the freshly rebranded parent of Orange and T-Mobile in the U.K. which also owns and operates the U.K.’s first (and currently only) 4G/LTE network, has revealed it’s behind schedule to launch SIM-only tariffs. The SIM-only plans were supposed to be available from today but a tweet from the EE Twitter account says the plans will be delayed by up to two weeks. → Read More
The EC has decided Europe needs more 4G/LTE spectrum to run all the high speed mobile data services citizens in member states will require in the coming years. Today it’s announced a plan to refarm 120MHz of spectrum around the 2GHz band for 4G services. The decision makes it mandatory for member states to liberalise the spectrum — currently licensed for 3G services — for 4G use by June 2014. → Read More
Today EE, which owns the Orange and T-Mobile carrier brands, has flicked the switch — turning on 4G services in 11 UK cities. EE has also rebranded more than 700 Orange and T-Mobile stores as EE stores, on high streets across the country to start selling the new services to existing and new customers. → Read More
Pricing for the U.K.’s first 4G/LTE network was announced earlier this week but despite offering five consumer phone tariffs there are no unlimited data packages at all. Yet the company does offer unlimited tariffs on its 3G T-Mobile brand (on the Full Monty tariff). EE’s consumer CMO, Pippa Dunn claims unlimited data is something only a marginal “super techie” minority actually makes use of. → Read More
After years of planning and step-by-step engineering, the U.K.’s switchover from analogue to digital-terrestrial TV broadcasts has finally been completed — marking the end of more than 70 years of analogue broadcasting in the U.K and opening the door for the launch of 4G mobile services in spectrum previously used by TV broadcasters. → Read More
U.K. carrier EE has revealed handset costs for those wanting to get a new phone when signing up for its 4G network. Prices range from free for one handset model on £41+ monthly tariffs, up to £380 for a 64GB iPhone 5 on the cheapest 4GEE 24-month tariff (£36). The 16GB iPhone 5 costs £180 on the cheapest tariff, while the Samsung Galaxy SIII 4G costs £150 on the same tariff. → Read More
Pricing for the U.K.’s first 4G/LTE network has been revealed. The new 4GEE tariffs start at £36 per month for a plan with a mere 500MB of data, and rise to £56 for an 8GB plan. The 4GEE network, a joint venture between the Orange and T-Mobile carrier brands — which merged to create the Everything Everywhere joint venture (now EE) back in 2010, is due to go live on October 30. → Read More
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