EE has announced that it will be doubling the amount of 1800MHz spectrum it currently allocates to its 4G network, effectively doubling network speeds in the process. It will be increasing the amount of spectrum used for 4G from 10MHz to 20MHz, giving its customers greater capacity too.

Double-speed 4G, as the company is dubbing it, will be rolled out to Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield by summer. It is expected that other networks will start to roll out their 4G services - as determined by the recent LTE spectrum auction - around that time, so this is a significant salvo from EE to maintain its position as the top provider for superfast data speeds.

The areas covered by the enhanced spectrum allocation will get speeds of 80Mbps plus, says EE. Lab testing has even seen speeds reach as much as 130Mbps. Because of the move, the average speeds for EE customers country wide will therefore reach more than 20Mbps, the company claims.

What EE is yet to reveal is how it plans to use the further 4G spectrum it won in the Ofcom auctions. Recently, company execs told Pocket-lint that, when combined, its service could rival and even better the speeds attained in other countries around the world, including the US, regardless of its infancy.

The network expects mobile data traffic to grow by 750 per cent in the next three years and is targeting a subscriber base of one million users by Christmas.

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