4G: ready but waiting - Telegraph Matthew Howett, an analyst at Ovum, said companies were waiting for the launch of a new iPhone before revealing their plans for 4G, as the current iPhone 5 doesn't work using 4G at 800MHz. "You just need to look at how successful the iPhone 5 has been in contributing to EE's 4G launch - they want to wait for that kind of anchor device to push ahead with their deployment," he said. However, he warned that any 4G services launched at 800MHz will not be as fast as EE's 'double speed' offering (average 24-30Mbps), because none of the other operators have a big enough holding of spectrum to reach those speeds. In 6 months to a year's time we'll have a technology called LTE Advanced, which allows the operators to pull together all of their different bits of spectrum to make a much bigger block, which means they can then do double speeds; but until then only EE realistically is going to be able to do that. Ofcom said that clearing the airwaves has been achieved through a combination of transmitter upgrades and retunes of TV receivers carried out by viewers around the UK. Work was conducted at more than 600 sites, while wireless microphones now use alternative frequencies. The final TV retune will be completed on Wednesday by Freeview viewers in northern Scotland, marking the end of a four-year engineering programme. Ofcom Chief Executive Ed Richards claimed: "4G services will reach 98 per cent of the UK population indoors - and even more when outdoors - which will provide a significant boost for rural businesses and consumers."