EE 4G rollout hits 200 location milestone

EE's 4G rollout across the UK continues at pace, with 13 locations getting connected this week and the firm celebrating the 200 town milestone with a switch on in Rhyl, North Wales.

Some 72 per cent of the country's population now reside in an EE 4G-connected area, meaning businesses and local people can access the web, do work or have fun while on the move.

"Today we switch on our 200th 4G town just 18 months after pioneering the service in the UK. We now have over two million customers using superfast 4G. That's the fastest rollout and uptake of any technology in Britain, and means that the UK's mobile digital infrastructure is now ahead of many other nations. We're proud to have been the driving force that made that happen, but we won't stop there," said EE CEO Olaf Swantee.

"Our continued drive to deliver 4G to more of the UK means that our customers have access to by far the biggest network in the country."

Other areas benefiting from the 4G switch on - which covers at least 80 per cent of each location - this week are: Armadale, Bishop Auckland, Cumbernauld, Hamilton Kirkintilloch, Larne, Newry, Peterlee, Staines, Stockton-on-Tees and Washington.

EE's superfast connectivity plans have gained momentum since they were outlined back in. Just last month it brought 4G to a further dozen towns in the UK. And earlier this year it celebrated having signed up its two millionth 4G customer.

The communications giant wants to reach its target of 4G coverage spanning 98 per cent of the UK by the end of the year.

EE also used the 4G announcement to highlight the fact it was recently ranked as the UK's number one mobile provider by RootMetrics.

Maggie Holland

Maggie has been a journalist since 1999, starting her career as an editorial assistant on then-weekly magazine Computing, before working her way up to senior reporter level. In 2006, just weeks before ITPro was launched, Maggie joined Dennis Publishing as a reporter. Having worked her way up to editor of ITPro, she was appointed group editor of CloudPro and ITPro in April 2012. She became the editorial director and took responsibility for ChannelPro, in 2016.

Her areas of particular interest, aside from cloud, include management and C-level issues, the business value of technology, green and environmental issues and careers to name but a few.