BT and Everything Everywhere tout a 4G network

TELECOMS FIRMS BT and Everything Everywhere were in the South West on Tuesday to demonstrate their joint 4G approach to solving rural connectivity problems in the UK.

The two firms have been running a trial since September with 180 customers around the St Newlyn East area of Cornwall, designed to test and demonstrate the viability of 4G LTE networks to get rural communities online.

The trial subscribers are split 50/50 between BT's Hub and Everything Everywhere's 4G mobile dongle, which is slightly larger than the standard 3G versions.

The network is running on the 800Mhz spectrum band, which the companies said is ideal for solving rural connectivity issues as it offers greater reach and in-building coverage.

At the event, attendees were shown a live demonstration of what LTE can achieve. The firms showed a family downloading a film, watching HD video, uploading photos and checking a map, all at the same time and achieving a healthy 6.8Mbits/s bandwidth with a ping time of just 68ms.

The hub has been able to support up to 10 devices at the same time, according to BT's Dave Axam.

"We've been asking people to download very large files at the same time as we wanted to test the boundaries," he added.

Axam also left open the possibility of BT doing similar deals with other mobile operators for shared LTE networks, saying there could be further opportunities while promoting BT's work with Everything Everywhere.

"We haven't got a contract in place yet. The partnership has worked well between the two of us and we happen to have the right set of assets," he said.

The pricing structure for a commercial rollout of this network is vague. Axam said that the ideal would be to price it at the same level as standard broadband, but the firms would need to look at customer demand and other factors first.

Everything Everywhere also used the event, attended by Ofcom and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, to push its argument for getting the spectrum auction issues resolved as soon as possible.

The auction, set to take place in 2013, will involve sale of the 800Mhz and 2600Mhz spectrums, with the latter aimed at high-density urban areas, for example the O2 London LTE trial. µ