4G 'will make cloud take off', and EE is already working on the next step

When EE unleashes its double speed 4G in 10 UK cities in a few weeks time, EE reckons it will see cloud computing come to the fore thanks to speeds up to 80Mbps.

You're unlikely to see that top speed, with EE predicting an average of 24-30Mbps - but that's still faster than a lot of people's home broadband connection.

Mansoor Hanif, EE's director of network integration & LTE, spoke to TechRadar about the real world uses for the faster connection.

"With the double speeds there are applications that use it today, especially with really high quality video, the uplink is amazing. With up to 40-50Mbps uplink, it's fantastic for the cloud," he said.

"That's power in the cloud and it's really going to make the cloud take off."

So you better strap yourself in and assume the brace position.

Power to the devs!

The network is not resting on its laurels either, with Hanif explaining: "We're already focussing on the next steps.

"What we want is an ecosystem which is ready for the next step and the application world needs to follow us. What we'd like to do in London is give a window to the future.

"This means developers in London can test out their apps with the new speeds in advance. We can give them an API and say 'Look, this is coming soon, test it out'.

"By testing it they'll see that they can change the whole way they structure, for example, adaptive video content and they can make it more compelling for the user.

"That is, we believe, a nine month head start for developers in the UK and that's what really makes us passionate as it's an opportunity to bring the centre of the internet from Silicon Valley here to Britain."

That's a pretty bold claim by EE to drag the core of the internet out of the States, and while it may have the ambition it needs to hope developers are up for following it.