The UK’s largest LTE operator EE launched EE Connect, which it claims is the country’s first 4G-capable, dedicated machine-to-machine service.

The company said EE Connect offers enterprises realtime monitoring of all devices, automation to set and edit business rules remotely, and granular reporting. It is supported by a dedicated service team.

EE said that there are currently two million machines communicating over its 2G and 3G networks, and anticipates that this will double to four million by 2017.

It also said that the ability to use 4G will “make all M2M communications more efficient”, and support new scenarios that require higher bandwidth, such as remote video distribution, in-car diagnostics and entertainment, and situations where low latency is critical, such as “driverless cars and future healthcare applications”.

EE Connect is available to all EE business and public sector customers from today, with trial packs available free.