The UK can now enjoy 4G network speeds on its mobile devices, so long as you're a customer of EE. Oh and residing in one of 11 UK cities.

The service, which brings the fastest network speeds the UK has seen, has gone live in London, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Cardiff, Southampton, Glasgow, Leeds, Sheffield, Edinburgh and Liverpool. 

EE, the umbrella company for both Orange and T-Mobile, is the only operator able to offer 4G in the UK, until next year. The company was given the green light by Ofcom to roll out the service after initial protests from O2 and Vodafone, both of which will be offering their own 4G networks from next year.

Three is also planning on offering its customers a 4G service before the end of the year, having bought part of EE's 4G mobile services spectrum.

With no competition, EE has been criticised by many for excessive pricing when it comes to its 4G offerings  - £36 a month will get you just 500MB of data, while for 8GB you’ll need to fork out £56. 

EE is promising 4G network speeds of up to 21Mbs, which means downloads and web browsing should match and even exceed broadband speeds in some homes. 

Phones 4u has become the latest retailer to announce its range of 4G-enabled handsets. The Nokia Lumia 920, Nokia Lumia 820, iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy Note II, Samsung Galaxy S III LTE and Huawei Ascend P1 LTE will all be available in store on the 4G EE network from early November.