UK carrier Everything Everywhere flipped the switch today on the country’s first 4G LTE service, bringing high-speed mobile broadband to 11 cities — including Southampton — and five more cities coming by the time the holiday season rolls around.
Everything Everywhere is claiming averages of 8–12Mbps — “five times” faster than the country’s existing 3G service — and says it will be adding about 2,000 square miles (or two million people) of coverage per month, eventually covering 98 percent of the country in superfast 4G by the end of 2014.
At the current moment in time global SIM card consumers are unable to access the 4G LTE services, but the upcoming Truphone VoIP App will work over the service. In the interim, six compatible phones went on sale earlier this month at Orange and T-Mobile stores — the Apple iPhone 5, Samsung Galaxy S III LTE, Nokia Lumia 920 and 820, HTC One XL, and Huawei Ascend P1 LTE — so you can still purchase a compatible device and have it unlocked if it isn’t already. There is currently no time frame for when the Truphone SIM and VoIP app consumers will be able to access the 4G service.