A week after BT announced that it is buying EE for £12.5 billion, EE has announced its commitment to investing £1.5 billion between now and 2017 as part of a new manifesto designed to tackle the UK’s changing digital infrastructure.
Under the plan, EE will focus on extending its 4G network to more than 99% of the population, with its rural investment programme targeting coverage enhancements for both voice and data services to 90% of the UK.
4G+ will be rolled out to 20 of the UK’s business cities, while double speed 4G is expected to reach 90% of the UK population, enabling data speeds up to 60Mbps to smartphones and tablets.
“Stage one of our Network strategy saw us overhaul UK mobile networks, launching 4G and changing the way people and businesses use their smart devices,” said EE CEO Olaf Swantee. “This revolution of the mobile landscape has made the UK a leader in global communications once again.
“Today we’re announcing the next stage with a commitment to, once again, radically improve mobile coverage, this time with a strong focus on rural UK, all while continuing to increase speeds and capacity with deeper coverage in more cities.”
EE principal network architect, professor Andy Sutton, said: “We’ve invested in 4G and taken the UK back to a position of leadership in mobile, and now we’re investing in 5G so that we can define the next step, and keep both us and the UK mobile industry one step ahead.
“Working closely with academic institutions such as the 5GIC at the University of Surrey and the EU’s Horizon 2020 ‘TWEETHER’ project at Lancaster University on technologies that are truly ground-breaking, EE will continue to change the way people think of what’s possible with mobile.”
Sutton added that EE will continue to evolve new 4G technologies as it looks to “lay the perfect foundation” for being a global leader in 5G.
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