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UK Finally Gets 4G Networking

Posted by timothy on from the one-upping-dan-savage dept.

judgecorp writes "The UK has finally got its first 4G network, provided by EE, a new brand from Everything Everywhere, the company formed by the merger of T-Mobile and Orange in the UK. The network will cover 20 million people (about a third of the UK population) in 16 cities by the end of 2012, but right now only engineers are on the network. It will support phones including the expected iPhone 5, and the Nokia Lumia 920."

7 of 49 comments (clear)

  1. Re:frequency band? by lobiusmoop · · Score: 2

    It's kind-of sad that this question even needs to be asked after 3 generations of global mobile telephony.
      As Andy Tanenbaum said: "The nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose from.".
    You'd think that by now we could agree on a unified solution for 4G.

    --
    "I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
  2. Re:frequency band? by Michael+Wardle · · Score: 2

    The press release doesn't say, but they got approval to use 1800 MHz for LTE recently, so I assume it must be 1800.

    http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20120821-700757.html
    http://www.zdnet.com/uk/4g-decision-annoys-everything-everywheres-rivals-but-it-will-benefit-consumers-7000002942/

  3. LTE? by jaweekes · · Score: 2

    But is it 4G LTE (100mb/s) or actual 4G (1000mb/s)? I think it's LTE but nothing seems to specify which one it is.

    1. Re:LTE? by squiggleslash · · Score: 2

      Where do you get "1000mb/s" for "4G"? And you do realize the "4G LTE" moniker merely means "We're actually running LTE, not HSPA+, to provide our fourth generation network", right? It has nothing to do with different versions of LTE.

      And yes, I'm aware there's some controversy on whether early versions of LTE count as "4G" (which is ridiculous, because 4G is not a synonym for IMT Advanced, and virtually everyone who pisses into that particular pool relies upon the assumption it is), but that's not what the "4G LTE" thing refers to.

      Here's the deal: LTE is a high throughput mobile network standard that supplies all services over IP. It's certainly next generation. LTE-Advanced is a tweaked version of LTE (which includes a necessary increase in data rate) to conform to IMT Advanced, the requirement list the ITU put together to define their next generation of networks. LTE Advanced absolutely conforms to IMT Advanced.

      Because early versions of LTE didn't quite reach IMT Advanced rates, an enhancement to UMTS, called HSPA+, was put forward as a legitimate alternative, as it reached similar data rates and it too could be run in an IP-only mode. That's what lead to the arguments, which lead Verizon and AT&T to start branding 4G and "4G LTE" as separate things.

      But that's it. "4G LTE" is not "a version of LTE that's not 4G", it's a branding that includes LTE in its basic next generation form, and LTE-Advanced.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  4. Re:frequency band? by SimonTheSoundMan · · Score: 3, Insightful

    We, as in UK, Europe and the rest of the world have. It is just the USA that is different.

  5. Re:Blocked ports? by Gordonjcp · · Score: 3, Informative

    Orange block SMTP that goes through port 25 but not their mail servers; they will allow you to add email addresses to a list that will be passed through their system unmolested.

    Having spoken to Orange tech support, they were quite clear that port 25 was filtered, and that wasn't going to change. There was absolutely no way to get my mail sent on port 25 without passing through their servers. I thanked the tech support guy for his help, having spotted what he was saying between the lines.

    Here's a hint - these days, most people should be using SSL or TLS with SMTP...

  6. Re:frequency band? by Chrisq · · Score: 2

    On what frequency band is it deployed?

    Hey, is that you Kenneth?