Watching a movie on your smartphone while you’re out and about in Hamilton could soon be an option.

The island’s main mobile phone service providers are gearing up to roll out 4G LTE networks that will give customers a much-enhanced, faster data service on their smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.

Customers can expect speedier web browsing, app use, e-mail and video downloading, together with a corresponding increase in upload speeds.

CellOne expects to be the first to unveil a 4G LTE network and anticipates it could be only weeks away. The company said the advanced network will initially be limited to Hamilton, although it will eventually become islandwide.

Meanwhile, Digicel Bermuda confirmed it is preparing a 4G LTE network that will be accessible “to all customers rather than a few in select areas”.

CellOne is in the final testing phase of its upgraded service. It is five years since the company launched its original fourth generation mobile service. However, the arrival of a 4G LTE network is a big additional step.

Around the world there are different types of 4G network but LTE, which stands for Long-Term Evolution, is regarded by many people as being the only “true” 4G service.

In the US, 4G LTE has increasingly become the standard network choice for major carriers such as Verizon and Sprint. It is also used in much of the rest of the world.

Brian Lonergan, CellOne’s marketing director, said bringing in the advanced technology entailed a huge investment, but it was an inevitable step for the island.

“You can’t be the carrier that does not have it. And when one carrier goes first everyone else will follow. We wanted to be first with LTE, to be the innovator,” he said. Until equipment upgrades and spectrum wavelength is secured to roll-out the service to other parts of the island, CellOne’s LTE offering will be confined to Hamilton.

“We know a huge percentage of Bermudians come to town to eat out or at the weekends, so just about everyone will get to try it.”

When customers move out of range of the 4G LTE network they will drop back onto the company’s regular network service.

Mr Lonergan said the data speeds would be significantly faster than those available at present and would be better able to meet the demands of users seeking to watch videos, or download online movies.

“There will be a difference when downloading a movie, people will notice,” he said.

Until the service is up and running the exact speeds that will be achieved are hard to predict. In theory, according to Mr Lonergan, they could go up to 75 megabits a second, however, the average would be lower and depend on factors such as how many users were on the network and how close a customer was to a cell tower.

For many years Digicel has been providing a 4G service using a technology called HSPA+, which is faster than 3G.

In a statement yesterday Digicel said it was “committed to continuing to provide the best network in Bermuda for data speeds and that includes an island wide roll-out of 4G LTE”.

It added: “Digicel customers today benefit from our enhanced 4G network providing 99.9 per cent coverage, average download speeds of 3.65Mbps and upload speeds of 0.7Mbps. Those speeds were verified 24 per cent and 52 per cent faster respectively than the alternative provider by the independent speed test conducted by Yupana in December.”

Digicel will make a full LTE statement when it is able to “provide details of access for all customers rather than a few in select areas”.

Meanwhile, CellOne has tagged mobile phones on its website that are 4G LTE capable for easier identification by customers.

The company is also encouraging customers to check that they have an LTE capable device, and that their device has an LTE sim card installed. Instructions on how to make these checks can be found on the company’s website at: http://www.cellone.bm/4g-lte/