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.