>International roaming data coverage is something that seems to be an increasingly important factor for carriers, and EE is doing what they can to expand on their partnerships for roaming data coverage at 4G LTE speeds in other parts of the globe. EE has yet to give any formal announcement on the newfound 4G roaming capabilities for their network, but it appears that mainland China is now one of the supported countries which EE customers are allowed to access roaming data at the applicable rates based on how much data they need, an addition to their services which should help them compete against Vodafone who is also expanding their own roaming partnerships.
LTE coverage has reportedly increased for subscribers with EE sim cards when roaming on the China Unicom network around Beijing. It isn’t known whether or not EE customers will be able to roam on other networks with the same level of coverage and data speeds, or if this kind of coverage experience can be expected to show up in other parts of China on EE or otherwise. With EE utilizing FDD-LTE technology on their network which is different than TDD-LTE technology being used by other networks in China besides China Unicom, it’s possible that roaming could stick to where ever China Unicom has a coverage presence.
EE is currently being pursued by British Telecom for a possible purchase of the company which was first announced back in 2014. According to a recent report BT is trying to speed up the approval process of the buyout which they expect to happen sometime around March of 2016 which is still quite a ways off from the current time. The deal has already been made and the terms have already been agreed upon, as its listed BT are purchasing EE for a total of £12.5 Billion. Should this deal go through, BT customers will presumably have the same roaming capabilities in mainland China as EE customers are apparently just starting to receive. While these new roaming capabilities are starting to surface, the actual rates for which customers will be charged to access 4G LTE data on the China Unicom network will still be set at EE’s current prices starting around £10 for just 100MB of data.