EE Coverage Maps

They are showing on - http://ee.co.uk/coverage

Ehm, pretty useless me thinks, ALL of the cities seem fully covered, really ?
Few city dwellers will see, soon apparently....

Anyone know how technically difficult 4G is to roll out?

For example, is it just a question of mounting new aerial equipment on to existing towers?

Trying to get a feel of how long it will be before minor towns are likely to be enabled...

EE have publically stated that they plan to achieve 98% coverage by (end) 2014.

I does also make me wonder just what equipment they have to change to do this and whether 3g+ coverage will also improve. I also wonder when cheaper compatible handsets will become commonly available.

New hardware to handle the new signals and optimised antenna, plus unless they intend to make congestion from cell tower to the internet worse, there will be upgrades to tower backhaul also.

In places with existing fibre to the mast this should be relatively easy.

Ha!

If you look at the Liverpool map, you can get coverage in quite a bit of the Irish Sea.....

The new 4G equipment is a software defined, so when we upgrade a site to 4G it will provide Basic 2G, GPRS, EDGE, Basic 3G, HSxPA, HSPA+, DC-HSPA+, LET (4G). (phew!)

The backhaul is being upgraded also to Gbit fibre, so you will get the speeds that the air interface can support.

70% by end of 2013
98% by end of 2014