EE puts 4G coverage in 14 more towns

131 towns and cities are now connected with an EE 4G super fast network, which will be available from tomorrow (30th Oct 2013) as a prepay service. 

EE will be launching their for 4G service into 14 more towns so customers in Benfleet, Caerphilly, Caldicot, Canvey Island, Carlisle, Chepstow, Cwmbran, Grays, Harlow, Hatfield, Kenilworth, Rayleigh, Southport and Worksop will now be able to enjoy 4G coverage.

EE will also launch their 4G prepay plans, which will be the first to become available in the UK. You will also see the launch of their ’4GEE Extra’ plans that will offer double speed 4G (60Mbps), larger data allowances, and inclusive roaming, calls and texts in 30 international destinations including the USA and Australia.

Now that more and more of the country is getting 4G coverage, do you think it'll encourage more consumers to get a 4G contract? Or is the cost of most 4G contracts too much of a deterrent?

4G going live in more cities

EE, Vodafone and O2 have all increased their 4G coverage around the UK last week. Vodafone and O2 are pushing hard to try and catch up with EE when it comes to 4G with both companies going live in Birmingham, Coventry, Leicester, Nottingham and Sheffield. This isn't surprising as the operators signed a network sharing agreement in 2012 that led to them both beginning their 4G roll out in August. 

O2 has now increased the number of cities to eight, the network is said to cover more than 9.5 million people and a further five cities (Liverpool, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester, Newcastle) will be going live before the end of the year. O2 is planning to increase its 4G coverage month on month until 2015. Aiming to achieve 98per cent indoor and outdoor coverage in the UK.

Not surprisingly Vodafone has announced that it too will go live (27th September) in the same 5 cities, plus it will launch its 4G network in Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester by the end of October. They too are aiming for 98per cent population coverage by 2015.

Three has announced that its 4G service will go live in four UK cities in December (London, Birmingham, Manchester and Reading. The areas covered by the end of 2013 will also include Oldham, Dudley, West Bromwich and Wolverhampton. Three will be really pushing forward with its 4G roll out next year when it'll bring its 4G service to a target of 42 cities.

Cambridge with its booming high technology sector, including a thriving and influential wireless technology group, CambridgeWireless seem to be about last in the queue for 4G as far as all of the operators are concerned. It begs the question – what criteria do the operators use to schedule the roll out?

The ultimate in mobile CCTV

Anvil works with a verity of partners to help them create some things that is special and unique within their market. ICU Technologies has developed an outdoor video camera with a secure built in 3G router  ready to house one of our fixed IP data SIMs.

All the unit needs is power and a mobile 3G signal to operate anywhere. You can connect to the camera from anywhere in the world by just typing the IP address into a browser. This approach is much less expensive and complex than installing servers and complex systems and you don’t need a fixed internet connection. When you want to, just move the camera to a new position,  plug it in and you are back on line again. 

The camera also supports sensors to trigger alarms and activate the video coverage or you can just check in whenever you like to see what is happening on site.

Power can be from a standard mains supply or from a 12V battery.  Some examples of applications for this most flexible solution are see below.

Construction and engineering project sites. The area you need to cover with video surveillance changes as the project develops. Materials and equipment get moved around and the video camera can be moved as and when required.

Agriculture, equipment and materials have to be taken back to a safe place where security cameras can protect them –or – save time and effort by moving the security camera instead.

 Events of all kinds need security. Installing internet connections where they are needed is expensive, time consuming and the cables are easily detected.  3G video cameras can be mounted wherever needed and moved around easily to accommodate changing environments.

Mobile. Whether on a boat, bus, van, truck, train or car the camera is accessible even when on the move. If there is a mobile 3G signal, you take the internet with you as you go.

Temporary (ad hoc) installations. You may want video coverage for a few hours, days or weeks for a specific reason.  This could be to counteract a threat e.g. vandalism, or watch something of interest such as wildlife or a one off sports event.

Remote and rural locations where fixed line internet is simply not available. The nearest BT exchange may be many miles away. The cost of laying cables would be much too expensive and the longer the cable, the less bandwidth you get when connected. Video just doesn’t work when the speed drops below a certain level, whereas 3G simply needs a decent signal to handle good quality video traffic.

 

The 4G race is speeding up!

It’s finally happened other major mobile networks in the UK have announced when they’ll be launching their 4G networks. EE has had a head start on the market as it was given permission by Ofcom to use some of its existing spectrum to offer a 4G service. It has made some inroads but will this give them an advantage now that the other networks are about to launch theirs? 

O2 has announced this week that it’ll start to switch on its 4G network on the 29^th August in London, Leeds and Bradford. The network claims that this will give 5 million people access to the high speed mobile internet service.  13 cities are planned to be activated by the end of 2013 these are as follows London, Leeds, Bradford, Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow, Liverpool, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry, Sheffield, Manchester and Edinburgh.

Vodafone has also announced that it will be launching its 4G network on 29^th August which is the same day as rival network O2. London will also be the first city to get 4G coverage from Vodafone with 12 further cities by the end of the year: Birmingham, Bradford, Coventry, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham, and Sheffield.

Once again Three has decided to do things differently. This is necessarily a bad thing as they are the smallest of the UK networks and they are also looking at being the last to launch a 4G network. However this does mean that they’re able to learn from the other networks mistakes, plus there current network already supplies high speeds, but are by no means as fast as 4G. One trump card that they have announced is that they pledge to offer their 4g services as a no-cost upgrade, which looks to be a move that will ruffle a few feathers and may spark a price war. 

It currently looks like 4G offerings will really be hotting up towards the end of the year, when all the networks have gone live and coverage is more comprehensive. Customers will also have to make sure that their device is 4G compatible as most won’t be the LTE version.

Mobile World Congress 2013

The world’s biggest mobile industry event Mobile World Congress 2013 has now finished. We can now look back at the event and analyse the main points. If you want to see all of the most talked about devices in the mobile market, you can do it one week before and a couple of weeks after MWC. This isn't a joke as it's actually want is starting to happen as more and more companies are running their own events to launch flagship devices. Here are a few examples

• Sony announced the Xperia Z in January.
• HTC's flagship device "The One" was announced a week before MWC.
• Samsung are launching the Galaxy S IV ten days after the event.
• Apple has traditionally been absent from the event.
• Microsoft was predominately represented by its partners.
• Google didn't even have a booth.

This doesn't mean that the event didn't have any announcements as ZTE, Huawei, LG and some other smaller names have given us new product launches with their latest flagship devices. Samsung did show off the Galaxy Note 8.0. Nokia launched a group of low-end phones which should do very well in the African and developing markets. Plus Sony was giving out its Xperia Tablet Z to a select few to try out. 

So for news from the big players, MWC isn't  the Mecca it once was, however, with more exhibitors focussed on areas such as application development, hardware, accessories, mobile device management and unified communications, it really is a great event. From a business standpoint, MWC provides a chance to see all of the aspects of the mobile, connected world in one place and gives insight into the trends and opportunities for the future. It’s all about data.