EE is trialling an ultra-fast Cat 10 4G network

Following on from yesterday’s news that the Samsung Galaxy S6 might have a Cat 10 4G modem capable of reaching 450Mbps download speeds, EE has announced that it will become the first UK network to reach those speeds next year.

This news comes from TechRadar who asked an EE spokesperson about the possibility of a Cat 10 network being launched by EE, and they confirmed that while the network currently has its eye on Cat 9 speeds it will begin testing the ultra-fast Cat 10 network in the middle of next year. If the tests are successful, it could see the launch of a consumer 4G network three times faster than what we have right now.

EE mentioned that the issue with Cat 9 and Cat 10 is that it requires three LTE carriers to come together to enable such a high speed downlink, meaning very few networks will be able to take advantage of the technology. In this country that’s primarily EE, but to some extent Vodafone may also be able to benefit. The EE spokesperson confirmed that EE’s choices from 2012’s spectrum auction make a Cat 10 network possible, meaning this has idea has been floating around in the company for some time.

That being fast speeds are rather pointless if you’re stuck with a contract that restricts the amount of data you can use each month. 4G speeds are already ridiculously fast in most places, and while that extra boost does seem exciting it’d be better if consumers were able to put it to good use.