O2 UK switch on 5G standalone mobile broadband network in Tyne and Wear
Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today announced that they’ve switched-on their next-generation 5G Standalone (5G+) mobile broadband network across Newcastle, Tyneside and Sunderland, which is said to reach nearly 1.2 million residents – delivering “faster speeds, better coverage and lower latency at no extra cost.”
Just to recap. O2’s rollout of 5G+ / 5GSA first began in February 2024 (here) and aims to reach “at least 90% outdoor coverage” in every location they cover. The operator’s latest rollout in Newcastle, Tyneside and Sunderland includes locations such as Newcastle city centre and the Quayside to Gateshead, as well as running from Sunderland and Washington to towns including Shiney Row, Hetton-le-Hole and Houghton-le-Spring, as well as smaller communities across the wider area (some of this went live a while little ago and is only now being confirmed).
The new 5G+ network is currently live across around 86% of the UK’s population. The technology offers a pure end-to-end 5G network that can deliver ultra-low latency times, greater energy efficiency, better speeds (particularly uploads), network slicing, improved support for IoT devices, increased reliability and security etc. By comparison, early 5G networks used a Non-Standalone (NSA) approach, which was hobbled by being partly reliant upon older and slower 4G infrastructure.
Advertisement
O2’s 5G+ Locations in Newcastle and Tyneside (890,000 people)
Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, South Shields, North Shields, Whitley Bay, Jarrow, Whickham, Hebburn, Tynemouth, Blaydon, Birtley and Boldon.
O2’s 5G+ Locations in Sunderland (288,000 people)
Sunderland, Washington, Shiney Row, Hetton-le-Hole, Houghton-le-Spring, Ryhope, Rickleton, Fatfield, Newbottle, East Rainton, Hetton Le Hill, Offerton and Burdon.
The new network is typically available to O2’s customers with compatible devices, although we do wish that mobile operators would start giving geographic coverage figures for their 5G+ network. Population figures always sound good, but the reality is often very patchy.
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.
Privacy Notice: Please note that news comments are anonymous, which means that we do NOT require you to enter any real personal details to post a message and display names can be almost anything you like (provided they do not contain offensive language or impersonate a real person's legal name). By clicking to submit a post you agree to storing your entries for comment content, display name, IP and email in our database, for as long as the post remains live.
Only the submitted name and comment will be displayed in public, while the rest will be kept private (we will never share this outside of ISPreview, regardless of whether the data is real or fake). This comment system uses submitted IP, email and website address data to spot abuse and spammers. All data is transferred via an encrypted (https secure) session.