Hands on with London's first 4G service
Summary: UK Broadband plans to start selling its 4G service to homes and businesses in Southwark next week. ZDNet UK put the TD-LTE network through its paces to find out whether it can deliver the typical 40Mbps speeds it promises
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UK Broadband 4G hands-on - Southwark
UK Broadband has said it will start selling its 4G services next week, in its bid to become the first provider of the super-fast connectivity in the country. On Wednesday, ZDNet UK put the service through its paces ahead of the public launch, to see just what speeds it could reach.
Residents and businesses in Southwark will be able to sign up for the 4G mobile services, following a two-month limited rollout in the London borough. UK Broadband will begin offering them directly to consumers "within the next week or so", it told ZDNet UK. However, this will not be the main business focus, as the company intends mainly to supply the service on a wholesale basis to operators.
The 4G network, which is based on Time Division Long Term Evolution (TD-LTE) technology, is capable of providing download speeds of up to 120Mbps, but typically should reach 40Mbps, according to UK Broadband.
To test the speeds delivered by the service, ZDNet UK visited a Southwark hotel and took a trip around the neighbourhood.
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