EE Bringing 4G To Rural Cumbria
EE, the UK’s most advanced digital communications company, today announced the launch of a 4G fixed and mobile broadband service in Cumbria, bringing high-speed broadband to homes and businesses in one of the UK’s most rural areas for the first time. The launch will offer many Northern Fells residents access to average upload and download speeds between 8-12Mbps, and headline speeds over 20Mbps.
The Northern Fells is an area of the UK that remains un-served by fibre or other superfast fixed technology. The launch demonstrates the ability of EE’s existing 4G network, running over 1800MHz, to offer the reach, capacity and high speeds necessary to deliver high speed broadband to rural homes and businesses. The deployment will help inform other potential 4G rollouts across rural parts of the UK.
EE is launching the service with its wide variety of existing consumer and business mobile broadband plans, starting from £15.99 per month, and will evaluate usage and behaviour to potentially develop other plans specific to rural customers. 4G home and office devices will be offered to help optimise the high-speed broadband experience for customers in one of the UK’s most rural environments. The service will cover 84% of the population across the Northern Fells by summer 2013.
EE has been running a 4G mobile broadband trial in Cumbria since May 2012. Participants of the trial saw speeds consistently in the range of 8-12 Mbps and frequent performance above 20 Mbps.
Rory Stewart, MP for Penrith and Borders, commented:
“This is a major step forward for my constituents. Superfast broadband is making a massive difference to the way that people live their lives and do business. The 4G trial that started last year has already made a substantial difference to people in the Northern Fells community, and it is a hugely positive step to see this being moved to a full launch over the coming months. EE is a great British business that is investing in sharing the power of connectivity with citizens living in some of the most remote parts of the UK.”
John Grainger, Managing Director at Invest in Cumbria, said:
”Cumbria is an area that has so much to offer, with so much innovation and ambition and so many successful businesses, working locally, nationally, and on a global basis. For many years we have lobbied companies and governments to bridge the digital divide to connect Cumbria, yet a lack of investment and commitment from service providers has for too long left us technologically isolated. EE delivering high speed broadband connectivity to large parts of the Northern Fells is great progress and a big moment for us – this will be a massive benefit to the local community, changing the way we live and do business.”
Olaf Swantee, Chief Executive Officer, EE, said:
“Using our dedication to innovation and engineering excellence, we are overcoming the challenges of delivering rural connectivity to launch a 4G mobile broadband service in Cumbria. This is yet another big step in advancing digital communications in the UK. We’re offering one of the fastest mobile networks in the world, and are pioneering how to make superfast broadband available to homes and businesses that currently have little or no connectivity.”
Consumers and businesses in the Northern Fells can register for high speed 4G broadband provided by EE as the service continues to rollout across the region.
Joanne Carter
Joanne Carter, creator of the world’s most popular mobile photography and art website— TheAppWhisperer.com— TheAppWhisperer platform has been a pivotal cyberspace for mobile artists of all abilities to learn about, to explore, to celebrate and to share mobile artworks. Joanne’s compassion, inclusivity, and humility are hallmarks in all that she does, and is particularly evident in the platform she has built. In her words, “We all have the potential to remove ourselves from the centre of any circle and to expand a sphere of compassion outward; to include everyone interested in mobile art, ensuring every artist is within reach”, she has said. Promotion of mobile artists and the art form as a primary medium in today’s art world, has become her life’s focus. She has presented lectures bolstering mobile artists and their art from as far away as the Museum of Art in Seoul, South Korea to closer to her home in the UK at Focus on Imaging. Her experience as a jurist for mobile art competitions includes: Portugal, Canada, US, S Korea, UK and Italy. And her travels pioneering the breadth of mobile art includes key events in: Frankfurt, Naples, Amalfi Coast, Paris, Brazil, London. Pioneering the world’s first mobile art online gallery - TheAppWhispererPrintSales.com has extended her reach even further, shipping from London, UK to clients in the US, Europe and The Far East to a global group of collectors looking for exclusive art to hang in their homes and offices. The online gallery specialises in prints for discerning collectors of unique, previously unseen signed limited edition art. Her journey towards becoming The App Whisperer, includes (but is not limited to) working for a paparazzi photo agency for several years and as a deputy editor for a photo print magazine. Her own freelance photographic journalistic work is also widely acclaimed. She has been published extensively both within the UK and the US in national and international titles. These include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Popular Photography & Imaging, dpreview, NikonPro, Which? and more recently with the BBC as a Contributor, Columnist at Vogue Italia and Contributing Editor at LensCulture. Her professional photography has also been widely exhibited throughout Europe, including Italy, Portugal and the UK. She is currently writing several books, all related to mobile art and is always open to requests for new commissions for either writing or photography projects or a combination of both. Please contact her at: [email protected]
