O2 Extends Live 5G Mobile Network Coverage to 20 UK Cities

Mobile operator O2 UK (Telefonica) ended 2019 last night by announcing that they had switched-on their ultrafast 5G based mobile broadband network in a further 13 cities across the United Kingdom, which meant they finished the year with a total of 20 as planned. But coverage in the new cities remains focused upon the busiest parts.

Readers may recall the O2’s 5G network first went live in busy areas of Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, London, Slough and Leeds during October 2019, which was followed by Leicester and Lisburn in November 2019 and today those have been joined by Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow, Liverpool, Newcastle, Bradford, Sheffield, Coventry, Nottingham, Norwich, Bristol, Derby and Stoke.

Much like Three UK and Vodafone, you can take advantage of 5G on O2’s recently launched “unlimited data” (Limitless) plans and it comes at no extra cost on their handset focused pay monthly “Custom Plans“. One oddity though is that only one tier on their SIM-Only plans (100GB data) includes 5G support, although as expected this is same price as their identical 4G plan. EE do unlimited data for 5G too but it costs a bit extra than on 4G.

Otherwise O2 claims to be investing over £2m a day in its network (we suspect this includes upkeep too) and their next target is to go live in a total of 50 UK cities and towns by Summer 2020.

Derek McManus, COO of Telefónica UK, said:

“We were incredibly proud to switch on our 5G network in October, and it is brilliant to hit our target of 20 towns and cities connected to our next-generation network as we head into 2020. Our range of tariffs make it easy and fair for customers to access 5G, with flexible plans that cost no more than 4G.

I believe 5G is going to revolutionise the way people and businesses use mobile connectivity, unlocking huge possibilities for our economy and society. We’re excited about getting it into the hands of our customers across the UK, and continuing to work with our partners to help shape the future of 5G for the next generation.”

The next locations to benefit from O2’s 5G rollout will include Windsor, Eton, Reading, Blackpool, Bournemouth and Guildford (they’re “aiming to commence rollout” in those areas by the end of March 2020). At this point the eagle eyed among you will have noted that O2’s 5G rollout plan has gone through a few subtle changes (e.g. Bournemouth was actually supposed to go live in 2019 but has been shifted into 2020).

Sadly O2, much like other operators (except Three UK), are currently limited to only using a single 40MHz slice of the recently released 3.4GHz band for 5G. This makes it difficult to deliver on the much hyped gigabit speeds (mobile broadband), although further radio spectrum bands are due to be auctioned off by Ofcom in 2020 and that should help to deliver performance that truly goes beyond the best of today’s 4G+.

The Rollout Plan to Summer 2020 (50 Towns and Cities)
Belfast
Blackpool
Bournemouth
Bristol
Cardiff
Coventry
Derby
Edinburgh
Eton
Guildford
Leeds
Leicester
Lisburn
London
Norwich
Nottingham
Reading
Slough
Stoke
Windsor

Aberdeen
Bradford
Brighton
Birkenhead
Birmingham
Cambridge
Glasgow
Hove
Kingston
Liverpool
Luton
Manchester
Milton Keynes
Newbury
Newcastle
Northampton
Plymouth
Portsmouth
Sheffield
Southampton
Sunderland
Warrington
Wolverhampton