EE, the UK-based mobile operator recently acquired by BT, pledged to cover 95 per cent of the UK landmass with its 4G network by 2020 in an effort to reduce the number of mobile broadband "not spots" around the country.
The operator said its ambition is to increase its 4G coverage from 60 per cent of the UK landmass today, "taking 4G to the very edges of the UK" by filling in outdoor not spots in current 4G areas and expanding 4G coverage by constructing 750 new sites. That would go beyond government targets for operators to provide voice and text coverage to 90 per cent of UK landmass by the end of 2017.
All four UK operators have obligations in terms of 4G population coverage. However, EE's move comes a week after a new report from Which? and OpenSignal revealed that UK mobile users are only able to connect to 4G half of the time.