EE accidentally confirms that iPhone 5 is LTE

Rating: Shows obviously Apple 4G handset

As EE (the new name for Everything Everywhere) was proudly announcing that it has switched on its LTE 1800 MHz based 4G network, it accidentally showed an Apple handset as a compatible device. Other manufacturers who were named directly were Huawei, HTC, Nokia and Samsung. It’s a bit of a boost for WP8 fans that Nokia will be amongst the first 4G handset suppliers in the UK, too. Olaf Swantee revealed that his newly rebranded network has switch on its 4G service in four UK cities: – Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, and London, naturally. Which was why Major of London, Boris Johnson, was the guest speaker.Swantee claimed that the roll-out of EE’s 4G will be the fastest network roll-out the UK has ever seen with 98 per cent of the UK population covered by Q1 2015.

It is something of an irony that EE has promised 4G coverage in 16 major UK cities in time for Xmas whilst rural coverage won’t start in earnest until 2013.

EE is also in the process of a major rebranding process. Whilst it will retain the use of the Orange and T-Mobile names, it will be renaming all of its joint 700 stores.

These stores will serve existing Orange and T-Mobile customers as well as winning customers over to the new EE 4G network.

Significantly, Swantee revealed that EE has been retraining some of its 10,000 retail based employees.

They will differentiate themselves by mobile OS – something of a radical shift away from tariff or hardware based handset sales.

The OS covered will be iOS and Android – of course – but BlackBerry and Windows Phone will also get their share of the EE experts.

Swantee made the point of saying that unlike his competitors – EE will be able to offer true LTE data throughput speeds which he claims will be five times faster than 3G.

Crucially, the 4G speeds will be faster that what he described as “dual cell HSPA +” which rivals will promote.

“We can offer that, too,” Swantee pointed out in reference to dual cell HSPA+.