BT confirms it’s in exclusive negotiations to buy EE for £12.5 billion

So it's looking more and more likely now.

BT would then have a quad-play offering akin to Virgin Media. It will be interesting to see how Sky and TalkTalk react. TalkTalk already has the quad-play offering with YouView and an MVNO mobile product which is something Sky lacks.

http://thenextweb.com/mobile/2014/12/15/bt-confirms-exclusive-negotiations-buy-ee-12-5-billion/?fromcat=uk

EE 4G+ hits London with a top speed of 150Mbps

Trying times ahead for fixed line providers if we see mobile infrastructure keep going at the current rate!

http://www.trustedreviews.com/news/ee-4g-hits-london-with-a-top-speed-of-150mbps

rators EE and Three strike a deal to share 4G infrastructure

Cost savings and better coverage hopefully!

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2326622/rival-operators-ee-and-three-strike-a-deal-to-share-4g-infrastructure

EE and Huawei to switch on LTE Advanced network in London's Tech City

LTE Advanced makes such a big difference as it makes use of 2x2 MIMO technology to use multiple masts and can make more efficient use of the radio spectrum i.e. letting devices use 20 MHz down at 1800 MHz and also the 20 MHz at 2.6 GHz. While the headline speed is 300 Mbps, it is expected that speed tests in the region of 60 Mbps will be more the norm.
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/6141-ee-and-huawei-to-switch-on-lte-advanced-network-in-tech-city.html

BT has no love of the old BT Cellnet network or Vodafone. Jumps in bed with EE.

BT has today moved one step closer to expanding their mobile solutions after it signed an “exclusive” multi-year agreement with EE (Everything Everywhere), which will provide the predominantly fixed line telecoms firm with Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) services.

The deal, which is still subject to final contract, effectively means that BT has chosen to replace its existing 9-year MVNO agreement with Vodafone in favour ofEE. BT said that the operator would work to “ensure a seamless transition for customers“.

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2013/10/ee-sign-deal-provide-uk-mobile-virtual-network-operator-services-bt.html

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UK ISP EE Launch New BrightBox 2 Router Alongside its Fibre Broadband

Interesting that the article mentions a lack of info on IPv6 support. You would think that a mobile operator would be all over that in terms of implementation and marketing given that mobile operators tend to be more familiar with IPv6 in their cellular networks (I'm generalising here).

802.11ac and a gigabit Ethernet port are nice additions for a bundled router though!

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2013/09/uk-isp-ee-launch-new-brightbox-2-router-alongside-fibre-broadband.html

EE might be bought by a consortium.

ISPreview http://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2013/02/private-equity-firms-target-4g-mobile-operator-ee-uk-with-gbp10bn-bid.html

Ofcom announce the 4G auctions bidders

Interesting not to see Virgin in there as they were running some 4G trials.

BT are in the mix via Niche Spectrum Ventures Limited.

I was kinda hoping for a surprise from a a big name fixed line ISPs but it seems they aren't interested.

B Sky B have The Cloud.

TalkTalk operate an MVNO

So I guess they consider the fix line market a core technology for another generation at least.

Going forward with fibre, the speeds will certainly beat 4G but 4G does bring down the latency on mobile connections. It'll be interesting when there is a mature 4G network in place, we might see more and more people willing to forgo a fixed line to save costs.

Thinkbroadband:
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/5637-ofcom-announce-the-4g-auctions-bidders.html

EE launches its 4G SIM-only plans- The Inquirer

Its like buying a sports car and being told your only allowed to go 40mph and for only 100 miles....

EE launches its 4G SIM-only plans- The Inquirer

I've bought a Lumia 920 Red

OK so I got it and its pretty awesome!

There are a few apps which need to be ported from windows phone 7 such as  The harvest and Endomondo sports tracker which I miss but apart from that most stuff is there!

Virgin (on the T mobile network in the UK) gave me a bit of trouble as their sim only rolling contracts don't have micro-sims yet so I had to get creative with a pair of scissors. It all turned out fine.

Virign Mobiles customer services could do with a bit of improving compared to Tesco mobile though. They had a system crash the first time I called which wasn't a good impression for someone porting in. Luckily the port went fine.

The only thing I haven't figured out yet is the NFC payments. I think this is more down to my card than the phone.

Here is a review: http://www.wpcentral.com/nokia-lumia-920-review

UK lumia 920 12 month pricing vs sim only.

EE (4G) have some rather strange pricing on the 12 months plans for the Nokia Lumia 920

Contract	Monthly Price	Handset Price	calls	sms	data	Total
12	46	129.99	Unlimited	Unlimited	500MB	£681.99
12	51	49.99	Unlimited	Unlimited	1Gb	£661.99
12	56	19.99	Unlimited	Unlimited	3Gb	£691.99

So you can treble your data for £5 more a month...

It'll be a close call between this and some of the great sim only 3G (1 month) contracts from the likes of Tesco mobile and Virgin...If the phone comes in at the £500 sim only they it'll look very good comparatively .. If it comes in higher then it starts to eek away its edge...

With the Nexus 4 setting a new standard for low entry to market price points, here's hoping the price will come in low.

http://shop.ee.co.uk/nokia-lumia-920-black/pay-monthly/mobile-tariffs/

Update: If  the US news today is anything to go by then we could be in-store for some competitive pricing as AT&T have put the 920 on sale offline for a VERY low price ($449.99):
http://www.engadget.com/2012/11/07/att-selling-unlocked-lumia-920-449-99/

Update 2: It looks like EE have put the price up in what looks to be even more of a ridiculous move on what was already going to be a slight disadvantage for them. Price wise for people not concerned with fast speeds on low capped usage it now makes even less sense.... I'm hotly looking out for Lumia 920 sim only / pay and go deals with a low monthly sim only 1 month contract.

Here is a good one for the Lumia 820:
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/nokia-lumia-820-windows-phone-8-4-3-screen-1080p-video-8mp-camera-super-sensitive-1349007

EE shoots it's self in the foot with pricing?

Personally I think 4G is a great technology. Providing you have good coverage it has the ability to massively increase your upstream and downstream while keeping latency low compared to 3G. People have banded around that you could even do your online gaming via it.

So why EE would hike the price up massively I don't know! It's not going to help their early chance at market penetration.

It's not something you can hype easily... when people will barely notice others who have it on their phones.
I think they should have just hiked the business prices and went in low with the consumer ones, then increase over time if required.... Other theory is they don't have the capacity just yet for a large scale migration onto it.

http://www.wpcentral.com/ee-announces-first-uk-4g-mobile-phone-plans-not-what-was-expected

EE coverage maps (Orange + T Mobile) UK

http://ee.co.uk/coverage

Also:

Brits who don't live in Swindon, Southwark or Reading (4G went live for them today) will be able to get their mitts on 4G LTE from 30 October, when EE launches its 4G LTE network. µ

(Take from The Inquirer here)