O2 has announced its plans to roll out its 4G network on August 29, making it the second UK carrier to offer 4G services.
It’s almost a year after EE announced its 4G services in the UK after receiving Ofcom’s approval, and is already offering 4G services in 95 cities.
O2 has announced the 4G network will be available in London, Leeds and Bradford from August 29, which wouldcover 5 million people. It also plans to roll out its 4G network in Birmingham, Newcastle, Glasgow, Liverpool, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry, Sheffield, Manchester and Edinburgh by the end of the year.
Unfortunately, O2’s iPhone 5 customers won’t be able to use the 4G network as its using 800 MHz spectrum, which is not compatible with iPhone 5. Telefonica UK’s chiefexecutive, Ronan Dunne told BBC that he “would be franklygobsmacked if their roadmap didn’t address that issue”,suggesting that future iPhonemodels will be compatible with their network.
O2 has said its basic 4G tariff will start at £26 per month. Everything Everywhere’s basic tariff starts at £21 per month for voice and data, or £15 per month just for data. It is not clear if O2′s cheapestplan includes voice and data, so we will be able to compare the tariffs as soon as we get more details.
Vodafone and Three have also announced plans to launch their 4G network in the UK by the end of the year.
Have you been waiting for O2to launch its 4G network? Let us know in the comments below.
Culled from iPhoneHacks