LONDON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - British mobile operator EE, thefirst to launch 4G services, said on Monday it had signed up 1million subscribers for the superfast broadband connections,beating its year-end target.
The operator, a joint venture between Orange andDeutsche Telekom, has built up a big lead over rivalssince starting to roll out 4G last October.
Rivals 02, owned by Telefonica, and Vodafone launched their 4G mobile offerings last month, with bothusing sports and music content to make their servicesdistinctive. Neither has released a target for customer take-up.
"We have seen one of the fastest (4G) adoption rates in theworld," EE Chief Executive Olaf Swantee said on Monday.
EE had a year-end target of 1 million subscribers to its 4Gpackages, which cost around 26 pounds ($41) per month for 500Mbof data, enough to download coverage of a couple of footballmatches.
Vodafone, which offers 2Gb of data in its 26 pounds a monthtariff, said on Monday it would launch in five more cities,beyond London, including Birmingham and Sheffield, on Sept 28.
In a sign of increasing competition among the three largestoperators in the nascent 4G market, Vodafone also said on Mondayit would give customers signing up to its 4G-ready plans beforethe end of October an extra 4Gb of data per month for the lengthof their contract.
EE has been steadily rolling out its service since launch,and last month it said it was available in more than 100 Britishtowns and cities.