UK’s Everything Everywhere and BT Wholesale have extended live multi-operator customer trial of LTE broadband. The trial has seen the two companies collaborate to provide wireless broadband to 180 customers living in and around St. Newlyn East in Cornwall since October 2011. 

The extension until the end of June 2012 has been granted by Ofcom to enable the companies to continue to investigate the application of 4G LTE in rural areas. This will be beneficial to the rollout of any potential subsequent commercial service.

The trial is successfully demonstrating that fixed and mobile technologies can work together to provide a broadband delivery option for remote rural areas. It has also proven that the low frequency spectrum (such as 800MHz) allocated to this trial is optimal for enabling broadband in remote rural communities.

“The rollout of 4G will help drive economic growth and create jobs across the UK by making the economy more competitive, by enabling businesses to be more productive, and by allowing consumers to benefit from the latest mobile innovations. This trial has been key in investigating ways to rapidly bring 4G LTE to Britain, and Ofcom is helping us do the groundwork to accelerate the UK from laggard to leader,” said Olaf Swantee, CEO, Everything Everywhere.