Vodafone UK on Wednesday unveiled seven cities that will become 5G trial areas, with roll-outs starting between October and December this year.
Vodafone UK said that its engineers are already laying the groundwork for 5G at more than 40 sites in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Liverpool, London and Manchester. Discussions with a number of enterprise customers are also underway, with a view to testing new 5G applications such as augmented and virtual reality in offices, factories and hospitals.
The 5G trial follows the Operator's win in a recent auction where it acquired the largest block of 5G spectrum and also after it successfully conducted its first UK test of this spectrum across a live network a week after that.
All four leading mobile operators in the UK - EE, Vodafone, O2 and Three - spent almost £1.4bn in total to secure wireless spectrum in the Ofcom’s 5G auction.
The upcoming trials will ensure that Vodafone is ready for the commercial launch of full 5G, which is expected to arrive early in 2020 to coincide with a wide choice of compatible phones and devices.
Nick Jeffrey, CEO, Vodafone UK
We want to make 5G and new fibre broadband services available to consumers and business throughout the UK, delivering a Gigabit society for all. We will also be bringing ultra-fast 4G to several hundred sites in hard to reach rural areas this year, building on our position as the network that offers the best voice coverage in the UK.
