Superfast 4G Launched In 11 Cities Across UK

Superfast 4G broadband has been made available to millions of consumers in 11 UK cities, heralding a new era for mobile phone use.

The network EE, which owns Orange and T-Mobile, has launched its range of 4G products and services in London, Bristol, Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds, Sheffield, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Southampton and Manchester.

Formerly known as Everything Everywhere, the company is offering speeds up to five times faster than 3G.

The service will be available on the Apple iPhone 5 and devices from HTC, Samsung, Nokia and Huawei.

It comes as EE's 4G pricing plans face heavy criticism, with additional charges for customers on certain tariffs if they exceed download allowances.

EE customers in six more cities - Belfast, Derby, Hull, Newcastle, Nottingham and Southampton - will have access to 4G by the end of the year.

The group then plans to roll out the service to further towns, cities and rural areas next year, with population coverage of 70% and rising to 98% in 2014.

Rival operators, including Vodafone, O2 owner Telefonica and Three, will be able to launch their own 4G services and products from next spring.

The companies had threatened legal action against communications regulator Ofcom over its 4G auction process, which has allowed EE to be the sole UK provider of the superfast services until next year.

Vodafone launched a "4G phone promise" last week, offering customers the chance to bring an eligible phone into any store and have 70% knocked off their remaining contract in exchange for taking on a 4G device.

The services will allow uninterrupted access to the web on the go, high definition films to be downloaded in minutes and television to be streamed without buffering.

The cheapest EE tariff offers just 500MB worth of downloads costing £36 per month. Customers who want to download more than their allowance will be forced to pay extra.

The top EE tariff for standard customers will cost £56 per month, with a data allowance of 8GB.

An hour of streaming live TV, for example on Sky Go, can use up to 225MB - half the basic tariff's data allowance.

Technology expert Kate Bevan said: "I don't think we know quite how much data we use, going about using the day-to-day internet.

"When you're on the base package of 500MB that's a couple of episodes of EastEnders and you will chew through that fairly quickly.

"Also, you are going to be locked into them for two years - these are 24-month contracts."