Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider, today announced it has partnered with leading UK mobile operator EE to launch the world's fastest 4G LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) network. As of today, the service is available in London's foremost business cluster, Tech City, and is set to expand across London throughout 2014, delivering mobile broadband speeds of up to 300 Mb/s.

The speeds and capacity of the network are enabled by Carrier Aggregation (CA), a fundamental feature of LTE-A, which allows next-generation of wireless broadband network with around twice the speed possible through most current LTE mobile networks. EE will start an official customer trial in early December, offering mobile WiFi in offices in the Tech City area. The network, which has gone live today, is being announced by Olaf Swantee, Chief Executive Officer of EE, at Huawei's Global Mobile Broadband Forum in London.

Olaf Swantee, Chief Executive Officer of EE, said: "Today is about introducing the next age of 4G mobile technology to the UK. Our existing 4G network delivers incredible mobile data speeds and covers millions of people across the country, but we never stand still – we know that mobile data usage is going to keep increasing, and rapidly so. The network we're switching on today in Tech City is the first part of an infrastructure that can meet the future demands of increasingly data-hungry consumers and businesses, and enable completely new ways of doing business."

Victor Zhang, Chief Executive Officer of Huawei UK, said: "Today's announcement is not only a vital step in realizing the future of the UK's mobile broadband infrastructure, but it is also an important moment for Huawei's UK business. We have been operating in the UK for twelve years and are committed to improving the national telecommunications infrastructure for the whole population. We are proud to have worked closely with EE as we grow our business in the UK following our pledge to invest £1.3bn into the economy over the next five years."

LTE-A

LTE-A marks the next step for mobile communications following rollouts of LTE networks and services. The core technologies of the LTE-A platform Huawei deployed for EE include CA, which allows for the full utilization of spectrum resources across multiple frequency bands by bringing together 20MHz of 1800MHz spectrum and 20MHz of 2.6GHz spectrum. As well as enabling high bandwidth, CA ensures backwards compatibility with LTE to facilitate a smooth, seamless migration.

LTE-A expands and enhances standard LTE capabilities, allows for more flexible and effective spectrum utilization, and provides for a simpler network architecture; the technology empowers operators to provide high-performance mobile applications and multimedia including video conferencing, high-definition content transmissions, high-speed video downloads, and social networking. LTE-A will provide EE's customers with the fastest mobile broadband experience in the world.

Supporting devices

The LTE-A device ecosystem is developing rapidly. The first commercially available Mobile WiFi units are expected to be introduced by Huawei in 2014 Q2, with handsets to follow in the second half of the year. Huawei is already working with EE to deliver three LTE-enabled devices, which will enable the operator's customers to take advantage of superfast services running on the Huawei-built 4G network.

Huawei's Ascend P1 LTE smartphone supports 4G speeds of up to 100 Mb/s, allowing for an incredible entertainment experience on the go. Huawei's E589 Mobile WiFi enables up to five regular wireless devices to simultaneously take advantage of EE's 4G network. Huawei's E392 mobile broadband stick delivers a mobile superfast experience for laptops.