With Everything Everywhere now covering both the Orange and T-Mobile networks and, with the firm applying for early access to 4G through the use of its existing spectrum, it seems only reasonable that other providers in the UK may be a little concerned that they may be late to market.
In an attempt to boost confidence and, in an announcement that hopefully should have a very positive impact on the UK's upcoming 4G infrastructure, O2 and Vodafone have stated that they will be teaming up to form their 4G networks. The two firms will pool their resources, constructing and sharing a common network infrastructure, whilst ultimately delivering independent services on different spectrums.
This means a boost in the number of sites available to each firm, resulting in a national grid of 18,500 sites, which works out at an increase in individual provider site count of 40 per cent and thus, better coverage, both for existing 3G and future 4G implementations. This also means that the two companies will be able to deploy 4G sooner, by sharing engineers and halving the load. O2 went on to say that it expects the group to reach a target of 98 per cent 4G coverage two years earlier than regulatory requirements, placing a complete roll-out of 4G sometime in 2015.
It appears as though Everything Everywhere will have to remain on its toes; Vodafone is already the largest UK mobile provider and, when teamed up with O2, the two firms will have the best UK-wide coverage on offer.
