London moves 'from laggard to leader' for mobile internet speeds

Phone giant EE today claimed London has finally moved “from laggard to leader” among world cities when it comes to mobile internet speeds as it launched an “ultra-fast” network that is faster than home broadband.

The company — which owns T-Mobile and Orange — said it has added significant extra bandwidth that will make mobile access about 50 to 100 per cent faster than its existing high-speed 4G network.

The new service, called 4G+, has peak speeds of up to 150 Mbps and an average of 90 Mbps. Fibre broadband to the home has an average speed of 72 Mbps, according to EE.

Tom Bennett, EE director of networks and devices, likened the move to adding “three extra lanes on the motorway”.

The new service is available from today in the West End and the City, from Kensington in the west to Shoreditch in the east, and will roll out to Greater London and other big cities in the next eight months.

Mr Bennett said: “When people are looking at their email, apps and all their social media, they will be connecting to a network as fast as anywhere in the world — a match for Seoul, the undisputed leader.”

He claimed it would make a big difference to London’s global standing. “London is the number one city in the world in many respects but it has been falling behind from a mobile and broadband perspective,” he said. “Places like Seoul, Tokyo, Hong Kong, New York and big cities in Scandinavia like Stockholm and Copenhagen have had far better mobile networks. In the last 10 to 12 years is when the UK went from a leader to a laggard.”

Bennett blamed heavy investment in the older 3G network, that cost mobile companies over £20 billion in a Government auction of the airwaves in 2000, for slowing down the roll-out of super-fast 4G.

EE, Britain’s biggest mobile phone network and the owner of T-Mobile and Orange, has 6 million 4G customers since being the first UK telecom provider to launch the faster service two years ago.

He said 4G+ means large numbers of people will be able to stream YouTube or BBC iPlayer on the go in a densely-poulated area. A high-definition 30-minute TV show should take less than 3 minutes to download.