Yorkshire cities in line for broadband upgrade - but rural areas miss out

Orange and T-Mobile owner Everything Everywhere, which has been renamed as EE, will make the state-of-the-art technology available to some 20 million people in 16 cities across the UK.

Unveiled at the Science Museum in London, the 4G network, which offers speeds up to five times faster than 3G, will be available on HTC, Samsung, Nokia and Huawei devices, as well as “one more to come”, which is widely expected to be Apple’s iPhone 5.

The announcement is likely to enrage EE’s competitors, including Vodafone, 3 and O2, who have threatened legal action over telecoms regulator Ofcom’s decision last month to allow EE to launch 4G on its existing network.

The 4G services will allow uninterrupted access to the web on the go, high definition movies to be downloaded in minutes and TV to be streamed without buffering.

Four cities - London, Bristol, Cardiff and Birmingham - are switched on on Tuesday for the company’s engineers to begin live testing and systems integration in readiness for the customer launch.

EE gave no specific date but said 4G will be available to its customers by Christmas in London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Derby, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, Sheffield and Southampton.

The group plans to roll out the service to further towns, cities and rural areas next year, with population coverage of 70% and rising to 98% in 2014.

EE chief executive Olaf Swantee said the launch of 4G will become another “great moment for the country in 2012” and will make Britain, which is lagging behind countries such as the US and Germany with its 4G roll-out, a “more modern country”.

The company and network will be re-branded EE but the Orange and T-Mobile brands will continue to exist alongside. The EE brand will cover the 4G service as well as a fibre broadband product, set to reach 11 million households and businesses by the end of the year.

But rural households are unlikely to benefit from the new technology. Telecoms expert Dominic Baliszewski of Broadbandchoices.co.uk said: “Customers in rural areas have been forgotten once again in the broadband speed race. 4G had been hailed as an answer to the problems of rural communities struggling with poor fixed line speeds, but subsequent 4G launches from other providers will also likely focus on the more commercially viable urban areas.”

He added: “Orange & T-Mobile users may be disappointed that they will not be getting an automatic upgrade to 4G, but gadget-hungry customers looking to upgrade should look before they leap. If you are within your contract but want to move to a 4G service, you could have to pay hundreds of pounds in early exit fees only to sign on to another lengthy and expensive contract.

“Customers should also be wary of data charges as download allowances on mobile phone contracts tend to be low, with hefty fines for exceeding those limits - data downloaded through a fixed line connection is still the cheapest option.”

Rival mobile operators Three and Vodafone are expected to launch their own 4G services next year.