KPN, Vodafone roll out faster 4G, better coverage

Telecommunications provider Vodafone is set to offer LTE Advanced to the Dutch market, the company said in a statement. The news comes days after rival KPN made an announcement revealing similar plans. While KPN will offer the faster internet option from July, Vodafone users will have to wait until later this year. Although their 4G network will only have coverage nationwide from late September, Vodafone has announce their intention to launch the LTE Advanced, or 4G+, sometime in the fourth quarter. Users will need to have the right subscription plan with their provider and their devices need to be compatible with the service to transmit data on the LTE Advanced network. No smartphones currently available on the market can support this technology, with the first LTE Advanced devices are expected to become available in September. The first 10 cities that will receive Vodafone LTE Advanced in autumn include Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Den Haag, Utrecht, Leiden, Delft, Maastricht, Den Bosch, Eindhoven and at least the Schiphol Airport area of Haarlemmermeer. Thereafter 40 cities including Leeuwarden, Groningen, Zwolle, Arnhem, Heerlen and Purmerend will receive the technology. Vodafone claims that speeds of 200 megabits will become possible with LTE Advanced, which is four times the speed of their current 4G variant, and faster than the broadband connection many internet users have at home. LTE Advanced may be offered as an alternative for home broadband connection, although the provider still struggles with the question of how this can be commercially achieved. During the testing phase of LTE Advanced, Netflix was streamed on four different televisions at the same time without any delays. LTE Advanced will likely be well received in areas where broadband is not yet available. LTE Advanced combines frequencies of 800MHz and 1800MHz. The benefit of the lower frequency is that it offers better indoor coverage, whilst the higher frequency provides better speed. The technology can be made available across the country as Vodafone already uses the 1800 frequencies.