EE has turned on the world’s fastest 4G network in London

EE has announced that it has activated its ‘4G+’ network in central London, a network that will be available to a select few who will be able to receive 150 Mbps download speeds. According to EE, these speeds make it the world’s fastest 4G network.

It’s based on a new technology which is known as ‘LTE-Advanced’. It works by taking advantage of all the frequencies that transmit a 4G signal and combining them, meaning that if your phone is compatible you’re able to download more data simultaneously. According to EE the this so-called ‘frequency aggregation’ uses 20MHz of 1800MHz and 20MHz of 2.6GHz spectrums.

But remember how I said that you need a compatible phone? Well it turns out only two compatible phones are currently available, Samsung’s Galaxy Note 4 and Galaxy Alpha. So if you want to try and experience these phenomenal speeds, you’ll need one of the two along with an EE 4G SIM card. If that wasn’t bad enough, the only places you’ll be able to access 4G+ are in Shoreditch, Old Street, Southbank, Soho, Westminster and Kensington. That being said, EE claims that it wants the new system to be available in Manchester, Birmingham, and Liverpool by next June.

150 Mbps is an incredibly fast speed, faster than an awful lot of home broadband speeds. Who knows? If this sort of network can be spread across the country then we might actually be able to ditch the wired internet infrastructure within the next couple of decades.

Tom Pritchard