EE Deploy 5G+ Mobile Broadband to 25 Key UK Events and 30 Tourist Towns
Mobile operator EE (BT) has today announced that 25 major events and more than 30 tourist destinations (seaside and market towns) will have been upgraded to support their latest 5G Standalone (5G+) mobile broadband technology this summer, bringing faster data speeds and better congestion management.
Just to recap. Early 5G deployments were Non-Standalone (NSA), which meant they were partly reliant upon older and slower 4G infrastructure. But SA (5G+) networks are pure end-to-end 5G that can deliver ultra-low latency times, greater energy efficiency, better mobile broadband speeds (particularly uploads), network slicing, improved support for Internet of Things (IoT) devices, support for Voice over 5G SA (Vo5G) calling, and increased reliability and security etc.
EE originally started deploying 5G+ across 15 major UK cities back in September 2024 (here) and they’ve since been rapidly expanding upon that coverage. The operator has previously informed ISPreview that they only announce 5GSA availability once a location has “at least 95% outdoor coverage“, which helps to ensure a good level of connectivity.
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The operator’s 5G+ network is now available to 75% of the UK’s population and today’s upgrades mean the technology covers more than 44 million people in England, as well as over 2.1 million people in Wales, 3.3 million people in Scotland and nearly 1 million people in Northern Ireland.
Some of the 25 major events set to be given 5G+ capability this summer include BST Hyde Park, the Isle of Wight Festival, the Reading and Leeds Festival, the F1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone and the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. As for the 30+ tourist destinations, we’ve listed those below.
Over 30 Tourist Destinations EE’s 5G+ Upgrade
- Ballynahinch
- Blackpool
- Blackwood
- Bournemouth
- Canvey Island
- Chepstow
- Chester-le-Street
- Coleraine
- Dawlish
- Dumbarton
- East Kilbride
- Eastleigh
- Falkirk
- Flint
- Hebden Bridge
- Holywell
- Lisburn
- Monmouth
- Motherwell
- Newport (Isle of Wight)
- Pontypridd
- Porthcawl
- Rhyl
- Risca
- Roslin
- St Ives (Cambridgeshire)
- Stroud
- Tonypandy
- Torquay
- Weston-super-Mare
- Whitehaven
- Whitley Bay
- Winchester
Greg McCall, Chief Security and Networks Officer at BT, said:
“The summer has arrived and as our town centres and tourist hotspots get busier, staying connected with fast, secure and reliable mobile coverage has never been more important. 5G+ on EE has been designed to deliver exactly that, so whether you’re video-calling your friends from a packed festival crowd or just keeping in touch with your family while you’re shopping in the high street, switching to 5G+ means you can benefit from a more dependable connection.”
The latest upgrades are said to signal a shift into a more “practical phase” for 5G+ deployments, with EE planning around the places and moments where demand is needed most, rather than treating rollout as a simple coverage-map exercise. The operator also reported that customer usage of 5G+ increased by more than 11% between March and April 2026.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Tenby is the most visited tourist destination in Wales – up to 50,000 visitors a day during the summer months – and none of the masts even have basic 5G NSA, let alone 5G+ / standalone.
It’s frustrating to see EE boasting with a list of 30+ “tourist destinations” they’ve upgraded, including places like Risca, Blackwood and Tonypandy – small ex-mining towns in the Welsh valleys that aren’t tourist destinations at all. In fact, people from Welsh mining villages famously come to Tenby for their holidays!
No, it isn’t.
I wouldn’t call Pontypridd a tourist destination either!
Would really love some insight into whether any MVNOs also benefit from 5G SA.
Not all EE customers benefit from it, so I doubt any MVNOs do yet.
I am meant to have 5G SA in my town – but meh I get 21mbps in the town centre – and around 50 on the outskirts.
On a Iphone 17 Pro Max so not old tech either. And a full fat EE SIMO CONtract
Never again – when it’s up 1p mobile it is
Currently, no MVNO in the UK has access to 5G SA.
If only they didn’t gate 5G+ behind their most expensive plans. It’s 2026, no mobile provider should be doing that.
Everywhere but Tenby haha!
Motherwell a tourist destination
Touristy costal Norfolk (plus Norwich), Suffolk (outside of Festivals), Kent, Isle of Wight and maybe Humberside noticeably absent, and gappy coverage along the south coast and Cornwall. Channel ports would also seem sensible.
Newport IoW being pretty much the least touristy part of IoW and enough terrain to tightly localise the coverage as well (the festival area would need it’s own coverage I think) IoW should be Ryde, Yarmouth, Cowes, Fishbourne instead.
I just wish they’d tweak the parameters of how you can connect to it.
One minute I’ll be sitting with three bars of N28 which provides perfect VoNR and fast data and the next minute it’ll bump me over to B20 which is congested and unusable.
It spoils the whole experience.
Unless they give 5G+/SA/NR (5G SA ahould have it’s own icon) to everyone this doesn’t mean much for majority of people
(instead of needing the All Rounder and Full Works)
It’ll happen eventually
Of course, Eastbourne clearly isn’t a tourist town ???? With its beach and coastline