UK Regulator Ofcom Grants Early 4G Rollout to Everything Everywhere

Way back in February I wrote about the state of, and lack of, the UK’s LTE mobile broadband services. Originally Ofcom had stated that it expected LTE services to be fully deployed and operational between 2013-2014.

As it turns out Ofcom have announced their approval of operator Everything Everywhere to begin rolling out LTE services as of September 11th.

Everything Everywhere, an amalgamation of T-Mobile UK and Orange UK, requested permission to rebrand its 1800MHz spectrum to deliver 4G LTE services for the consumer market.

While a full auction of the 800MHz and 2.6GHz spectrums doesn’t get underway until early 2013, Ofcom believes that denying Everything Everywhere’s request would be “to the detriment of consumers”.

As a customer of O2-UK for a very long time I personally believe that this could deal a massive blow to Everything Everywhere’s rivals. I will definitely be switching my network operator so I can benefit from the 4G network. I imagine that many other consumers and businesses alike will follow the same line of thought.

What do you think? Will you be switching carriers? Let us know your thoughts through the usual channels.

[via]