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EE on Monday announced plans to onshore 100% of its customer service operations, and increased its 4G coverage target to 95% of the U.K. landmass.
By the end of 2016, the BT-owned mobile operator will fill 600 new customer service roles so that every call is handled by staff based either in the U.K. or Ireland.
The first 100 roles will be split between call centres in Merthyr Tydfil, North Tyneside, Plymouth and Ireland by the end of June, and will support postpaid customers. The locations of the remaining 500 jobs, which will provide service to prepaid customers, will be disclosed during the second half of the year.
In addition, EE has also upped its 4G coverage target to 95% of the U.K. landmass, as measured by Ofcom, by 2020. To mark the occasion, EE switched on its 4G network in Shetland and the Isles of Scilly.
"For the average smartphone user, not-spots aren't tolerated and 2G doesn't deliver what they need. Customers want 4G speeds everywhere they go," said EE CEO Marc Allera, in a statement.
EE already plans to extend 4G coverage to around 92% of the U.K. landmass by mid-2017 under the emergency services network (ESN) contract it won in December 2015.
An EE spokesman explained to Total Telecom that Monday's announcement represents additional investment that will extend the network even further via the deployment of 750 new cell sites.
"Mobile operators are too used to saying 'no' to new coverage," Allera said. "Today, I'm saying 'yes', with an ambition to go further than any operator has ever gone, and with the ultimate aim of covering the whole U.K. with 4G."
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