O2 launches 4G broadband trial in London

More and more people are using their devices to browse the Internet or check their email while they’re on the go. This can actually be attributed to a lot of reasons. First, it’s convenient: there’s no need to switch on the laptop or look for a place to rent a desktop because you can do everything right from your mobile device. The rise in mobile data demand, projected to increase 10-fold by 2016, can also be because of the increased popularity of such devices like smartphones and tablets.

Ofcom has announced a 4G LTE spectrum auction to help alleviate the load on mobile data networks. However, it was postponed, much to the chagrin of various networks who were looking to add more spectrum to their networks from the auction. In the meantime, BT Broadband and Everything Everywhere are wasting no time deploying 4G technology by conducting a trial in Cornwall. The trial was announced on May 25 of this year and is expected to run until early next year.

O2 Broadband is following suit with their own 4G high-speed mobile broadband trial in Britain. The provider is the UK’s second largest operator with over 22 million subscribers. The large-scale trial will provide speeds that are up to ten times faster than the current ones to users in Canary Wharf, Soho, Westminster, South Bank and King’s Cross.

O2′s UK chief executive Ronan Dunne said: “There’s no doubt that the mobile networks will have the capacity to support everything being connected. We will start the dialogue with business about what are the new use cases, putting onto mobile what we used to do on fixed line in the past.”

The trial will involve 25 masts, where around a thousand users will be invited to participate in the trial. Participants will include staff at John Lewis department stores, O2 customers and selected small businesses establishments.

On the UK falling behind in terms of 4G deployment compared to Europe, Dunne stated: “This is demonstrable evidence of my intent. We’ll all be ready to get off the blocks as soon as the spectrum is cleared. Nobody will have a national network on day one, but there is the opportunity to have significant coverage ready to go.”

Source – The Guardian