EEs superfast 4G service, said to be five times the speed of 3G, launches at 11am today in 11 major cities: Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Manchester, Sheffield and Southampton.
Expanding by 2000 sq miles, and 2m people per month, five more cities will be online before Christmas, with rural locations expected by 2013. 98 per cent of the population should be covered by the end of 2014, according to the company.
EE has marked the launch of the nations newest mobile network by opening 700 stores on high streets across the country – achieved by merging existing Orange and T-Mobile shops. It has promised a new level of service to EE, Orange and T-Mobile customers, with 10,000 EE experts trained to serve and sell.
4GEE plans come with unlimited minutes and texts, but the company has been criticised because the lowest data packages will mean limited downloads at new peak speeds. 
It should enable users on the go to access web pages and download large email attachments more quickly, watch live TV without buffering, download movies in minutes, play live multiplayer games and make high quality video calls. Other mobile services included are EE Film, Clone Phone insurance and inclusive nationwide BT Wi-Fi.
Olaf Swantee, CEO at EE, said: “Today is a landmark day for our company, the UK mobile industry and, most importantly, the country’s businesses and consumers. But this is just the start as our 4G network will continue to grow stronger and wider by the day. We’re investing £1.5 billion in our network to be the first company to offer mobile 4G in the UK, alongside the biggest 3G network.”
EE’s Fibre Broadband, which could give users ten times faster download speeds than existing services, is also available to 11m homes and offices from today.
