O2 4G Arrives In Belfast And Lisburn

O2 4G is now available in Northern Ireland, with LTE coverage extending to the capital, Belfast, and the town of Lisburn as part of a £15 million investment by the operator into its cellular infrastructure in the country.

This has funded not only the rollout of 4G, but also the modernisation of O2’s 2G and 3G networks, and the company has pledged a further £5 million to bring LTE to other parts of Northern Ireland, including Derry, by the end of 2014.

EE has been providing 4G coverage to Northern Ireland for some time, but local leaders claim the arrival of O2’s competing service will bring a range of benefits to local businesses.

O2 4G Belfast

“The arrival of O2 4G marks another significant step forward for Belfast and Lisburn as the network promises to deliver many positive benefits to both businesses and smartphone users,” says Arlene Foster from the Northern Ireland Department of Enterprise, Trade & Investment.

O2 says its 4G network now covers a third of the UK population and the company claims to have secured more than one million LTE customers since it launched the service last August.

The operator won two 10MHz chunks of 800 MHz spectrum at the Ofcom auction last year, one of them requiring it to provide a mobile broadband service to 98 percent of the UK population and at least 95 percent of the populations of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

“I’m delighted that O2 4G has arrived in Northern Ireland,” says Derek McManus, Chief Operating Officer of Telefonica UK. “As we continue to roll out 4G across Northern Ireland, we are also upgrading our 2G and 3G networks, so every O2 customer will have an even better experience.”

Businesses in Northern Ireland already benefit from widespread superfast broadband coverage with 90 percent of all phone lines in the region connected to a fibre cabinet.

Are you up to speed on 4G? Try our quiz!

Steve McCaskill

Steve McCaskill is editor of TechWeekEurope and ChannelBiz. He joined as a reporter in 2011 and covers all areas of IT, with a particular interest in telecommunications, mobile and networking, along with sports technology.

Recent Posts

BYD, Geely, Great Wall Add DeepSeek AI To EVs

Chinese electric vehicle giants rush to incorporate DeepSeek AI tech to cars after it creates…

5 mins ago

South Korea Suspends DeepSeek From App Stores

South Korean data authority suspends Chinese AI start-up DeepSeek from Apple, Google app stores while…

36 mins ago

Google Puts ‘Profits Over Privacy’ With Tracking Change

Privacy advocates criticise Google over decision to allow companies to track users via digital fingerprints,…

1 hour ago

Meta To Build World’s Longest Subsea Fibre Cable

Meta Platforms announces plan to build Project Waterworth, a 50,000 km cable linking five continents…

2 hours ago

Romance Scams, AI Fuel Record Crypto Fraud Revenues In 2024

Scammers take in record crypto revenues in 2024 driven by romance scams, generative AI, growing…

23 hours ago

TSMC In Talks To Take Over Intel Chip Factories

TSMC considers taking controlling stake in Intel's US factories under Trump administration proposal to safeguard…

23 hours ago