Telecommunications provider Everything Everywhere has announced it is planning to double 4G speeds on its network by summer 2013.
With promises of speeds reaching 130Mbps on 4G-enabled devices, and up to 300Mbps soon to follow, EE CEO Olaf Swantee promised that EE is "setting a roadmap for 4G [that] others cannot match".
Further reading
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With 34 per cent of the UK's telecommunications spectrum now in EE's grip, Swantee made it clear that the ability to improve the service so quickly was "planned from the beginning".
"The design of our network from the start has catered for continual improvement," said Swantee. "The reason we're announcing it today is because we're capable of doing it."
Covering 10 cities, including London, EE says that the promised 130Mbps that will hit by summer will be supplemented "beyond" this time by even faster speeds, which it says will reach as high as 300Mbps.
Swantee was keen to impress that 4G, and speeds even beyond what is currently offered, were something the company's customer base wanted – even if doesn't yet know this.
"Before you start using the service, you don't notice the difference but once you do, you don't want to go back," said Swantee.
"It will be the same with doubling the speed: we will see new applications that will run even better and, yes, that will make a difference. And customers will buy that."
Swantee said that EE was "surprised by the uptake" of 4G in the enterprise since the service began rolling out in 2012, adding that he "can confirm that the appetite is absolutely there" for 4G speeds in the enterprise.
EE, which made a 249m loss in 2012, is unable to name any kind of "killer app" that the enterprise market – or consumer for that matter – uses that actually requires speeds in excess of 130Mbps.
However, the CEO cited the multi-tasking nature of smartphone platforms such as Blackberry 10 requiring "higher bandwidth" in order to manage a greater simultaneous number of data-hungry apps.
For Computing's opinion on today's EE announcement, please continue to the H4cked Off blog.
