EE steps up lobbying for 4G rollout
Everything Everywhere has launched a website to educate brands and consumers about the benefits of 4G in a bid to speed up the roll out of the spectrum in the UK.
The website forms part of a wider lobbying campaign by the company, dubbed 4GBritain.
Everything Everywhere is understood to be approaching celebrities and brands to support the campaign and raise awareness about how the next generation of fast mobile internet will benefit society.
4GBritain claims to already be supported by Virgin Media, Huawei, The Countryside Alliance and TheTrainline.com.
Rivals such as Vodafone and Three, however, are concerned the campaign is pushing for Everything Everywhere to have an unfair monopoly of the UK’s 4G spectrum.
Everything Everywhere already owns a large chunk of the 4G spectrum and has applied to Ofcom to start rolling out the service to customers this year. If Ofcom agrees to this on 8 May, rivals are concerned that by launching 4G a year ahead of them, Everything Everywhere would have an unfair commercial advantage.
The wider sale of the 4G spectrum in the UK has been dogged and delayed by operators arguing over how to share out the network between them.
Everything Everywhere has also commissioned a report by Capital Economics as part of its lobbying efforts to speed up the auction, which claims the introduction of 4G will boost UK GDP by 0.5% (£75bn) by the end of this decade.
Olaf Swantee, Everything Everywhere CEO, says: “We have committed to investing more than £1.5bn to roll out 4G networks over the next three years.
“As the UK’s largest mobile provider, we have a duty to invest in innovation and help build the 21st century communications infrastructure that UK consumers and businesses deserve.”
