A brand new network -- dubbed 'EE' -- will serve up the nation's first taste of 4G data.
It's run by Everything Everywhere, the hard-to-get-your-mouth-around joint venture between Orange and T-Mobile.
EE will "stand alongside" Orange and T-Mobile, with the new EE company being the only one of the three to offer 4G. EE says 16 UK cities, including Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh and London, will be 4G-equipped by Christmas.
If you're an Orange or T-Mobile customer, that means you won't automatically be able to get 4G, unfortunately. If you want to upgrade to the EE service, the double-caps firm promises it will make that easy.
EE's 4G service will be launching in a few weeks time, promising the speedy new network tech, as well as fibre Internet in your home. We should know more about prices and speeds shortly -- fingers crossed the fact that you can't currently get 4G anywhere else doesn't make it too expensive.
- Here's the full list of cities where 4G will be available: Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Derby, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Nottingham, Newcastle, Sheffield and Southampton.
O2 and Vodafone will be fuming today, as Ofcom has allowed Everything Everywhere to kick off its 4G service ahead of the big spectrum auction next year, at which point those other networks will get a chance to start their own services.
Boris Johnson, the mayor of Cartoontown London, was present at the launch, holding a smart phone and promising that "information will now spout in unbelievable, unstoppable quantities from these gizmos".
There aren't many phones out there that will work with 4G in the UK, but Nokia's new Lumia 920 is one of them. The iPhone 5 -- due to be revealed tomorrow -- could be another.
EE says new 4G phones will be coming soon, from the likes of Samsung and HTC. A 4G version of the Samsung Galaxy S3 is one of the phones in EE's 4G launch lineup.
Are you excited about 4G? Are you worried it will be too expensive? Have your say in the comments below or on our Facebook wall.
Android App 
RSS Feeds 
iPhone App 
Newsletters 
Comments 6
Add your comment
Justin Berkovi 11 September, 2012 10:48
Price will be everything. Having switched from Vodafone (Terrible terrible data coverage in London) to THREE just the other week, THREE make an interesting case for data. For £25 a month on a monthly rolling contract (not tied to a long term 2 year contract) you get truly unlimited very GOOD 3G data and the usual loads of texts / minutes on your plan.
Three's data is fast at 3G and this means that emails / browsing, etc. is very good.
Would I benefit from 4G speeds? Not really on my mobile device especially if the contract ties me in to 18 months or more. However the idea of a 4G dongle might be a better proposition.
If the tariffs and costs are truly competitive then it might be a nobrainer to jump on the EE bandwagon.
anonymous 11 September, 2012 11:05
Hey just wandering what is the best deal at the moment for pay as you go tariff if you only want to spend £10 a month on top? I'm currently on O2 with 500meg internet and unlimited texts. Is there anything better?
samuelc 11 September, 2012 11:12
I'm gutted because I have the S3 with T-Mobile and was really looking forward to getting 4g, but now will be unable to as it's not supported. This was very short-sighted on behalf of Samsung, and Apple are going to have a massive advantage over them now.
Even if Samsung bring out a 4g version of their phone, this isn't going to help anyone who has the previous version of the phone already and is tied into a long contract.
Also, anyone who does change their current S3 to a 4g version of S3 when it's brought out is likely to be disappointed, because as has happened in the US market, the 4g version of the S3 has only been released as a dual core phone to create space to fit the 4g capabilities, so people upgrading to a 4g S3 now will likely see a decrease in performance in other areas
anonymous 11 September, 2012 11:39
It is good to know that UK is getting 4G earlier than expected.The fact that O2 and Vodafone wont be able to compete with EE hopefully will result in a cheaper tariffs from them once they actually get permission.
Personally i hope that EE will introduce a tariff with unlimited internet usage for less £40 a month, cause whats the point of super ultra fast internet if you only have 250 - 500 mb to use.
Choccie Milk 11 September, 2012 14:22
@anonymous 11 September, 2012 11:05
The best would be giffgaff where you pay £10 a month for unlimited texts, unlimited internet and 250 mins. (While it's not technically pay as you go you just pay £10 every month and can stop whenever you want.)
As EE it's good to see they're being quick about it and are going to be getting 4G out quickly. While I won't be getting a new phone for over a year so it doesn't really affect me I agree that the main thing will be the pricing. If EE abuse the fact that they're first then it could just be that very little people bother with 4G straight away although it's always surprised me how much some people are willing to pay for their phone contracts.
anonymous 13 September, 2012 09:54
In my house, my wife and I have an iPhone each, bu they are staggered to run out in alternate years, so she gets my old one each year (I pay for them both). I get the latest iPhone each year, she gets a new (to her) iPhone each year.