“Rodney” & EE – IPhone 5 and the UK’s fastest mobile network

Friday was busier than even apple expected, the launch of the iPhone 5 has brought 5 million buyers to apple’s door already. A number of our customers wanted to be one of the first to get their hands on “Rodney” (our nickname for the 5 as it looks like the Only Fool’s character when sat next to it’s older brother “Del” or the 4S) and quite a few wanted to know about EE (Everything Everywhere) and the new 4G network.

Here are the bits we know.

1) EE’s 4G network will be launched in four UK cities, London, Bristol, Birmingham & Cardiff to begin with.

2) By Christmas it is planned to be in a further 12 UK cities.

3) It will run independently of the current Orange & T-Mobile networks.

4) There are no confirmed tariffs yet for the new network.

So what does this all mean?

Well, it means that EE will have the fastest mobile data network available in the UK ahead of all its competitors, but it may not be rolled out to where you live until much later. If you are a T-Mobile or Orange customer you will have to migrate over just like a Vodafone or O2 customer but it should be much easier and I would hope they won’t charge any exit penalties to do so. But I don’t know how much your EE tariff will cost you, or when you can do it.

So in summary, my advice is to sit tight, buy the handset SIM free if you need to be one of the first (not including the 5 million who already have one) and wait and see if 4G will be in a town near you and therefore if it is worth moving from your current network provider.