EE to launch LTE by year-end

At a press conference in London, Everything Everywhere – the company formed by the merger of the Orange and T-Mobile brands in the UK – has announced that it will be launching an LTE service by the end of 2012.

The move follows the decision by UK regulator Ofcom to allow the operator to re-farm 1800MHz spectrum for LTE services.

A new brand will be introduced, EE, to market the high speed data offering, with the existing brands expected to settle into less advanced segments.

The company has pledged to bring 4G services to 16 cities covering a third of the population in the coming weeks. Handsets available on the service will include Samsung’s Galaxy S III LTE, HTC’s One XL, the Huawei Ascend P1 LTE, Nokia’s Lumia 820 and its Lumia 920 device, which will be exclusive to the operator. The company added that there will be more handsets available soon, with universal anticipation that Apple’s iPhone 5, to be launched tomorrow, will be on the network.

Telecoms.com is currently at the event and will be providing more details and analysis later today.