3,000 feet high and rising: EE reaches new heights on Scotland’s ski slopes

  • EE making strides towards its pledge to cover 95% of the UK with superfast 4G by 2020

  • More than 100 sites being upgraded to 4G every week across the UK

  • Coll, Orkney, Shetland and Skye already benefitting from new EE 4G sites

  • Geographic 4G coverage in Scotland doubled in the last 12 months and is set to pass 80% in 2017

EE, the UK’s largest mobile operator and part of BT Group, has brought 4G to another Scottish mountain with the activation of a site in Kingshouse, Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands.

The site covers Glencoe Mountain Resort – which welcomes 150,000 tourists a year – and is EE’s second highest site in the UK. At 2,800 feet up the mountain, gives superfast 4G speeds to sports fans hitting the slopes at Glencoe Ski Centre.

EE’s highest site is on The Cairnwell, a mountain in The Cairngorms National Park, at 3,000 feet. Thanks to EE’s major investment in high-speed 4G mobile signal in Scotland, 93,000 viewers tuned in to VisitScotland’s first Facebook live video from CairnGorm Mountain, broadcast over EE’s 4G network.

EE continues to upgrade and build more than 100 4G sites across the UK every week, as part of its ambition to cover 95% of the UK landmass with 4G by 2020.

Andrew Meldrum, Managing Director and Owner of Glencoe Mountain Resort, said:

“It’s great that both the staff and visitors can now access 4G mobile services, especially as we’re getting ready to kick off a busy few months at the centre. 4G is a great way to keep people connected on the mountain, whether it’s finding out which run their friends are on, or live-streaming their latest tricks. The added network coverage is also critical to support our efforts to make the mountain as safe as possible for everyone who visits this iconic part of Scotland.”

Malcolm Roughead, Chief Executive of VisitScotland, said:

“With Scotland’s stunning landscape playing a huge role in inspiring potential visitors to our shores, the ability to connect online and share images of our beautiful countryside to the world is becoming increasingly important.

“Being better connected allows us to reach even more people than ever before on social media, where already we enjoy engaging with our followers in new and innovative ways to both inspire and inform them about Scotland.”

Marc Allera, CEO at EE, said:

“We want to provide a 4G connection wherever people go. We’ve got to 3,000 feet, and we’ll go higher and further to keep people connected. Helping our customers share great moments, and helping the Mountain Ski Centre teams keep those customers safe, is exactly what our network is all about.”

4G sites have already been switched on in remote locations across Scotland, including Coll, Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides, and the Orkney Islands, as well as sites planned on the neighbouring Shetland Isles, with more than 300 new, and thousands of upgraded, sites planned to connect even more of Scotland.

EE was named as the number one overall network in Scotland, coming top across reliability, speed and data measures in RootMetrics’ latest independent Mobile Performance Review for the best mobile experience. The report looking at how mobile operators tested in network performance across the breadth of the UK, highlighted the continued success of EE’s investment in building the best network for customers right across the UK.

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