Cumbria 4G Speed Test Helps Business, Says EE

Everything Everywhere has claimed that its first customer 4G trial in Cumbria has brought the benefits of 4G speed provided by Long Term Evolution (LTE) to local businesses.

The trial, launched in May by the Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove and local MP Rory Stewart, has brought faster speeds and more reliable broadband to a number of businesses in Threlkeld.

The trial uses Everything Everywhere’s 1800MHz spectrum, which is currently used by Orange and T-Mobile, and the trial will provide the operator with information about the performance of 4G on the bandwidth in rural areas.

Cum-bri-a my lord

“I am pleased to see Cumbria at the forefront of innovation and most importantly our local business and residents finally being able to access the internet,” said Stewart, MP for Penrith and the Border. “Let’s hope that this service starts to become commercially available in the UK as soon as possible.”

Threlkeld was chosen because it currently has insufficient and unreliable broadband, problems for which 4G is proposed as a solution. Employees of the selected businesses are testing the network using both dongles and routers and are currently able to achieve speeds of 20Mbps, apparently increasing their productivity.

“Having recently been accepted onto Everything Everywhere’s 4G trial in Threlkeld I’m pleased to say the benefits to my business have been immediately noticeable with a large increase in consistent and useable connection speeds, which are typically 3-4 times faster than my existing landline broadband,” said Corin Burdon of Keswick Web Design. “The quality of the connection has been particularly noticeable with file upload speed and transfers via FTP.”

4G speed bumps

Everything Everywhere says that the live network trial in Cumbria will be key to understanding how LTE works in real-life conditions, especially with regards to the number of people using it, the distance from the mast, building density and geographical terrain.

“Business will benefit hugely from fast mobile broadband connectivity and the growth, investment and jobs that it will deliver,” said Olaf Swantee, CEO of Everything Everywhere. “The UK must start catching up now with the nearly 40 other countries that have deployed 4G LTE to maintain its competitiveness.”

Everything Everywhere has been granted provisional approval by Ofcom to launch a 4G network on its existing spectrum, before the perpetually delayed auction of spectrum has taken place. This has infuriated its rivals, but EE has dismissed claims that the decision has distorted competition and has launched 4G Britain, a website aimed at preaching the benefits of LTE to the UK. This, however, has been dismissed as little more than a lobbying effort by its competitors.

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