Discussing this progress, a spokesperson said: “In the last year, EE has expanded its 4G small cell estate to towns and cities including Cardiff, Dundee, Luton, Norwich and Stoke-on-Trent. [It has also] continued to improve capacity in summer hotspots like Torbay and Cumbria.”
The spokesperson continued: “EE’s first 5G small cells are also now live as part of a trial taking place in the London Borough of Croydon. Seven sites - including four along Croydon’s London Road - are now supporting the local community, seeing over 3TB of traffic each day.
“EE is unique within Europe in combining licenced 1800MHz and 2600Mhz spectrum with unlicensed 5GHz spectrum in its 4G small cells. The new 5G cells in Croydon are configured with licensed 1800MHz spectrum for 4G and 3.5GHz for 5G.”
The company says that EE uses “advanced network analytics” to identify specific locations likely to benefit from a small cell. Deployment is carried out in collaboration with Nokia and Ericsson.
BT Group’s chief networks officer, Greg McCall, said: “Small cells are an integral component within our mobile network, ensuring that even in the busiest places our customers have access to the full performance of the UK’s best network. To reach 1,000 deployments, including our first 5G sites, demonstrates our commitment to delivering unrivalled mobile connectivity to all four corners of the UK.”
