EE announced on Wednesday that it will launch its 5G service on 30th May in six cities: London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester, Edinburgh and Belfast. EE also unveiled its 5G Smart Sim only plan with a number of 5G smartphones available for pre-orders.
Consumers and businesses can pre-order the new devices, including smartphones from Samsung, OnePlus, LG, and Oppo. EE is also announcing a 5GEE WiFi and 5GEE home broadband with pricing and availability to follow.
This is Phase 1 of EE’s 5G rollout: a ‘non-standalone’ deployment focused on using the combined power of 4G and 5G to give customers the fastest, most reliable mobile broadband experience they’ve ever had.
Phase 2, from 2022, will introduce the full next generation 5G core network, enhanced device chipset capabilities, and increased availability of 5G-ready spectrum. Higher bandwidth and lower latency, coupled with expansive and growing 5G coverage, will enable a more responsive network, enabling truly immersive mobile augmented reality, real-time health monitoring, and mobile cloud gaming. Phase 2 is also a vital step on our journey to the convergence of our network technologies, as we bring together fixed, mobile and WiFi into one seamless customer experience.
Phase 3, from 2023, will introduce Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC), Network Slicing and multi-gigabit-per-second speeds. This phase of 5G will enable critical applications like real-time traffic management of fleets of autonomous vehicles, massive sensor networks with millions of devices measuring air quality across the entire country, and the ‘tactile internet’, where a sense of touch can be added to remote real-time interactions.
Marc Allera, CEO, BT's Consumer Division
We’ve started with 5G in some of the busiest parts of the UK, the widest range of 5G devices in the UK, and plans that give customers the best mobile connection and great benefits. We’re upgrading more than 100 sites to 5G every month from today to connect more places to what 5G can enable.
John Griffin, Head of Ericsson Ireland
Our partnerships with Google and Niantic are just the start of our commitment to work with the most innovative and exciting companies in the world to ensure that EE customers are the first to benefit from the exciting new experiences that 5G will bring.
