Everything Everywhere has ditched the name  to launch a new brand to sit alongside Orange and T-Mobile in its network family.

Called EE, the new service which, from today (11 September), will become the umbrella network for Orange and T-Mobile, promises to be a superfast brand when it launches in a couple of weeks' time. Olaf Swantee, the CEO of the newly named company, also confirmed at a press conference in London that there will be a range of 4G-enabled devices from launch. 

In a first for a mobile operator in the UK, EE will not only be offering 4G in the UK, but also a fixed line fibre optic broadband service for customers in the home. The company says the broadband network will cover 11 million households by the end of the year.

Swantee also said that current Orange and T-Mobile customers would be able to either stay on their current offering, or upgrade to the faster network to benefit from the new services.

"We are seeing a 250% growth in mobile data every year from our customers. Our new brand is the only brand in the UK to offer 4G services combined with fibre," he said.

The 4G network will be launching today for live testing in four major UK cities: London, Birmingham, Cardiff and Bristol. A full consumer launch is planned for before Christmas, covering 16 cities across the country.

"London will be the first major European city to be covered by 4G," said Swantee. "We plan to have 4G services available to 20 million in the UK. The EE network will cover 70 per cent by 2013, 90 per cent of UK by 2014."

Brands and smartphones planned to work on the EE network include the Nokia Lumia 920, Samsung Galaxy S III and, yes, the iPhone 5 - as Pocket-lint exclusively told you a couple of weeks ago. Certain HTC and Huawei handsets and mobile dongles (in the case of the latter) are also expected to be compatible.