EE Rounds Off 2014 By Hitting 7.7m UK 4G Customers

Network adds 5.7m 4G customers in 2014, with over 1,000 small towns and villages now connected

Mobile network EE has revealed it added more than 5.7m new customers to its 4G network throughout 2014.

The company can now boast 7.7m 4G customers throughout the UK, beating its initial target of 6m customers, making it the country’s biggest provider of superfast networks.

This has also led to a huge upswing in the amount of data processed by EE’s network, with the company reporting that six times more 4G data was uploaded and downloaded by customers in 2014 than in 2013, driven largely by the sharing of photos and videos across social media, as well as higher amounts of video streaming on mobile devices.

The company says it was able to deal with this increase by doubling the available capacity across its entire 4G network in 2014, and will also be introducing 4G+ in London and the UK’s busiest areas this year to support more users and maintain speeds.

East London’s Tech City area boasted the three busiest 4G mobile sites in 2014: Silicon Roundabout, Hoxton and Shoreditch High Street.

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However, the network has no plans to rest on its laurels, and revealed it only plans to keep on expanding the reach of its network, which currently covers more than 80 percent of the UK population, with the aim of reaching 98 percent by the end of 2015.

The company revealed that it had connected added 350 more cities and towns in 2014, with more than 200 added in the last three months alone. EE’s 4G network also connected over 1,000 small towns and villages throughout the UK, opening up faster and more reliable communications for people living in remote locations.

The figures mark the end of what has been a successful year for EE, which was also named by watchdog RootMetrics as the best operator in the UK. However, an Ofcom study also revealed it was the most complained about network too – a reputation that could be exacerbated by the company’s decision to introduce some charges for calls to customer services.

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