On test – How does EE 4G perform in the real world?

You’ve seen the news and the TV reports. A reporter, stood inside or next to an EE store slap-bang in the centre of London or Manchester. He lifts the handset, does a speed test and tells us how great 4G is.

I could have done the same, but I wanted to push the envelope a little. So last night I went through the EE coverage maps and saw a few 4G “blobs” of coverage outside the 11 main cities that got turned on yesterday. This morning I travelled to Sutton Coldfield, which is just outside Birmingham. There, in a quiet country lane, I was bathed in one whole bar of 4G coverage.

The lovely PR people reading this are now sweating a little. They sent me this HTC One XL with an EE 4G SIM inside and they probably didn’t think I would test it out with just one bar of coverage in the middle of nowhere.

So how did things go? Would a transmitter covering a tiny lane have the same “kick” as a city centre one? Would a mobile phone get more bandwidth than the locals do through their home broadband connections? Did people give me funny looks for being sat in a country lane with a camera, all alone?

Well, check the video out below. I know I’m probably the only person using 4G in the area, but still, nearly 30Mbps with a flaky 4G signal? Colour me impressed…

Update – A few of you have asked just which lane this was filmed in. Here’s the exact location.

Link – EE