The
first UK's first fourth generation (4G) mobile service has gone live in 11
cities. London, Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Leeds,
Liverpool, Sheffield, Glasgow and Southampton will have access to network EE's
4G from Tuesday morning. Other mobile networks will not be able to offer 4G
until next year. Critics have questioned the service's affordability -
particularly with regard to data usage allowance. Belfast, Derby, Glasgow,
Hull, Newcastle and Nottingham will be active by Christmas, the company said.
Network
EE, formerly known as Everything, Everywhere and which owns Orange and T-Mobile
in the UK, has promised speeds of between 8 to 12Mbps - up to five times faster
than third generation mobile technology, known as 3G. The extra speed and
capacity allows for high-quality streaming of audio, video and other content
while on the move. The company said as well as giving customers faster
internet, 4G would also be of big benefit to businesses.
All-you-can-eat
world
However,
such benefits come at a cost - the entry tariff of £36 per month includes 500MB
of data, beyond which an add-on cost must be paid if the user wishes to carry
on using the internet on their mobile. However an hour of streaming a programme
using, for example, the BBC iPlayer mobile app, can use up to 225MB - almost
half the entry level tariff's data allowance limit. The add-on costs for extra
data begins at £3 for 50MB, and extends to £20 for 4GB. The company's top
tariff for standard customers will cost £56 per month, and has a data allowance
of 8GB.
EE
boss Olaf Swantee has said that the pricing is based on "months of
consumer research" and that the tariffs have been priced at "the
sweet spot".
But
Matthew Howett, a regulation analyst at Ovum, said EE has a challenge in
convincing consumers their 4G is good value for money. "It's fair to say
that EE has attracted a fair degree of criticism not so much for the price of
the 4G tariffs, but rather on the amount of data bundled at each level,"
he said. "EE was always going to have a difficult role to play being the
first mover. "However, its peers
may be grateful for attempting to move away from an all-you-can-eat world for
data to an attempt to monetise it. "Too
quickly data became commoditised for operators once smartphones and other
connected devices proliferated."
User
poaching
A
successful 4G launch is seen as critical for EE if it is to poach customers
from other networks. EE
was granted its headstart in the 4G market last month when it was given
permission to run the next-generation service using its existing bandwidth. Its
competitors are unable to offer 4G until the conclusion of a spectrum auction
scheduled for early next year.
The
auction will determine how newly available signal spectrum will be offered to
the other networks. The
process had been continually delayed by a combination of factors, from a change
of government to threats of legal action from operators.
On
2 October, O2 and Vodafone agreed not to take legal action against EE, and
instead settled for assurances that the process of launching their own 4G
services would be sped up. But
since EE's 4G announcement, rival networks have sought to undermine the firm's
offering.
In
a statement on its website, Vodafone underlined what it saw as a weakness in EE's
4G - indoor coverage. "Indoor coverage matters," the company wrote. "That's why we've made a commitment to
provide 98% indoor coverage. "The reason we can do this is because we
intend to use 800MHz frequency. Without getting too technical, this means your
signal travels further into your home than any 4G signal that's available now,
all things being equal."
BBC News
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