4G+ five times faster than average broadband

 Britain will have access to superfast 4G+ mobile Internet services by the end of the year. Photograph: AFP/AFP/Getty Images

Finally, more people in the UK will get advanced mobile internet speeds comparable with South Korea and the US, with the launch of EE’s next generation 4G+ network.

The UK is now back to being a world leader in mobile networks. Just two years since we were behind every developed market from the US to Japan, we’ve invested in innovation, driven competition and given people in London a mobile network that’s as faster than almost any other in the world, and even faster than most fibre broadband available here.

The new technology to be rolled out, called carrier aggregation or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) allows devices to connect to two different 4G mobile signals at the same time, doubling the capacity in the most densely populated areas. That means even on packed trains the data network remains strong, removing frustrating overcapacity issues as commuters all attempt to access the internet at the same time.

EE has the largest 4G network in the UK covering 300 towns and cities and 75% of the population and with six million subscribers. O2 and Three have yet to confirm plans to follow EE and Vodafone.

There are 83.1 million mobile phone subscribers in the UK, according to data from Ofcom, while 61% of adults have a smartphone.