UK's communications service provider EE is doubling the speed and capacity of its 4G LTE network. According to company, this step enables lab speeds of 130Mbps and will boost peak 4G speeds to 80Mbps plus while doubling current average speeds to 20Mbps.

EE is doubling the amount of 1800MHz spectrum bandwidth dedicated to LTE, from 10MHz to 20MHz. This 4G capability will roll out to ten existing 4G cities by summer – Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield. Operator has already been trialing it in Cardiff and has seen peak speeds to reach 80Mbps plus. Once switched on, the improvements will be automatically available in those cities within existing plans to new and current 4GEE customers on all 4G smartphones, tablets and dongles.

Operator has set a target of reaching one million 4G customers by the end of 2013 and is forecasting mobile data traffic to grow by as much as 750% in the next three years alone. In addition, before the end of 2013, EE is aiming to trial carrier aggregation, a fundamental feature of LTE-Advanced, combining spectrum from different bands to further boost performance, speed and capacity. 

4GEE is currently available in 50 UK markets and will have 80 towns and cities, and approximately 55% of the UK population, covered by June. EE is aiming for 98% of the UK population to be covered by the end of 2014.