4G to launch in 16 UK cities this year

Everything Everywhere, which has rebranded to EE, is set to launch 4G mobile services in 16 UK cities before the end of the year.

The mobile company will continue rolling out 4G next year and aims to provide coverage to 98% of the UK by 2014.

4G is currently being tested in London, Birmingham, Cardiff and Bristol and could launch within weeks, however a number of other cities can also expect high-speed connectivity soon, including Belfast, Liverpool, Leeds and Manchester.

EE will offer a number of handsets with the service, including Samsung’s Galaxy S III LTE; HTC’s One XL and Huawei’s Ascend P1 LTE. The company will also offer Nokia’s Lumia 820 and Lumia 920.

Ofcom ruled that EE could launch 4G services in August. It requested to run the high-speed 4G services over part of the radio spectrum it already uses for earlier generation technologies.

Rival operators will have the opportunity to buy spectrum to support 4G in 2013.

Read the full BBC article here.