UK's EE claims that it will be the first operator in the world to bring its customers the OnePlus 5G smartphone.
Chinese smartphone firm, OnePlus announced EE as its 5G launch partner at the Qualcomm summit event, taking place in Hawaii. EE and OnePlus are working on an R&D partnership to ensure the best possible 5G connected experience for customers.
EE is switching on 5G sites in 16 UK cities in 2019. The first launch cities will be the UK’s four capital cities – London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast – and Birmingham and Manchester. As well as the six launch cities, through 2019 EE will also be introducing 5G across the busiest parts of ten more UK cities: Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds, Hull, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry and Bristol.
The first 1,500 sites that EE is upgrading to 5G in 2019 carry 25% of all data across the whole network today, but only cover 15% of the UK population. 5G is built on top of EE’s award winning 4G network – customers’ 5G experience will be dictated by the quality of both 4G and 5G, as well as the underlying fixed network.
EE is upgrading transmission to 10Gbps links at each 5G site, and has tested the new links – the fastest in use anywhere in the UK – at its trial sites in Canary Wharf and across East London.
Marc Allera, CEO of BT's Consumer Division
Adding 5G to the UK’s number one 4G network will increase reliability, increase speeds, and keep our customers connected where they need it most. We have an ambition to connect our customers to 4G, 5G or Wi-Fi 100% of the time.
Pete Lau, CEO and founder, OnePlus
The pursuit of speed has defined the OnePlus DNA since OnePlus was founded five years ago. There’s no one more suitable than OnePlus to make a 5G smartphone.
