EE Put Ultrafast 5G Network Live in 12 New UK Towns and Cities
Mobile operator EE (BT) has this morning announced that their new 5G ultrafast mobile broadband network has just started to go live in the busiest parts of a further 12 towns and cities across the United Kingdom, which includes locations such as Aberdeen, Blackpool and Oxford.
The development means that their 5G network is now live across busy parts of 112 UK locations, although it will take a while longer to reach the same level of coverage in each area as has already been achieved by existing 4G networks.
At present the operator can only harness a 40MHz slice of the 3.4GHz radio spectrum band for their 5G service, but more bands are due to be released by Ofcom early in 2021 (e.g. 700MHz and 3.6-3.8GHz). Nevertheless, they’ve so far been able to deliver better speeds than rivals at Vodafone, O2 and Three UK, although it remains to be seen whether this will last.
Marc Allera, CEO of BT’s Consumer Division, said:
“Delivering the best mobile experience for our customers has never been more important. Our 5G rollout continues apace, with our engineers building and upgrading new sites every day to bring the latest mobile technology to even more people in the places they need it. We have 5G coverage in more places than anyone in the UK, and we remain focused on connecting many more areas this year and beyond.”
The operator has previously told customers to expect an increase in speeds of around 100-150Mbps from 5G – “even in the busiest areas” – and at the same time they also predicted that “some customers” may break the 1Gbps (1000Mbps+) milestone on their 5G smartphones (the fastest speed possible when EE launched 4G in 2012 was just 50Mbps). But getting 1Gbps in busy urban areas is likely to be quite rare, until the extra spectrum goes live.
Network insights from EE show that the top three uses of its 5G network today are video streaming, social networking and web browsing, with YouTube, Netflix, Facebook and Instagram taking the top spots as the most used internet services.
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 and Linkedin.
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Just a marketing exercise by EE for Apple’s announcement today. lots of those places have had 5G for months.
Exactly… Surprised Vodafone havent done the same
‘The latest 12 locations include ‘ ‘are’.
If you are so concerned with grammar, why don’t you start your own news blog?
It went “LIVE” in Glasgow months ago too, but horrible coverage, and their coverage tool is setup purposefully to be misleading.
5G coverage is shown in yellow on the map, but there is just a single colour of yellow for ALL levels of coverage. So whether you are in a “weak signal outdoors” area or a “strong signal indoors” area its all the same colour.
So it looks like most of the city is covered with 5g, but it seems like (based on random postcode checks I have done) that most of the city is “weak outdoors signal”. Very misleading
At present the operator can only harness a 40MHz slice of the 3.4GHz radio spectrum band for their 5G service.
That is not technically correct, EE and others could deploy 5G on their 2.6, 2.1GHz and other spectrum holdings, eg Deutsche Telkom is putting 5G on 2.1GHz in addition to its 700MHz rollout.
Yes but if they wanted to do that then they’d first have to get the nod from Ofcom, so for now it’s still all they can use. Spectrum refarming tends to come later, such as when 3G services are retired (not mentioning 2G as that may have to stick around for longer) and / or 5G coverage in the launch bands has suitably matured. We won’t see the 4G bands being touched for a while.
No Mark they don’t need to get the nod from Ofcom. Vodafone are already using DSS and EE will be in the new year
Ah I had completely forgotten about DSS, good point.
Whats the reason they need ‘the nod’ from Ofcom to go full spectrum on the 5G?
Is it health related? If they turned on full spectrum overnight would it be too easy to identify that any health concerns coincided with the roll out date of 5g?
Just a thought.
We are talking about process of assignment only. At present, other than heating (this is true for any form of light), there are no proven health effects associated with 5G services. People who say otherwise are spreading misinformation:
https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2020/02/is-uk-5g-mobile-dangerous-to-human-health-a-fact-check.html
I should say that Ofcom has threaten to sanction media publications that help to fuel the spread of misinformation during the COVID-19 crisis, which is why to avoid liability we will often remove such comments.
Three customers on 5G Home Broadband are getting AVERAGE speeds of 556Mbps! Regular speeds are in the 700Mbps even during peak hours.
Jealous, can’t wait until 5g finally comes to Chester
Any evidence to support this? As far as I’m aware, Three’s 5G speed is still very unstable, and it fluctuates from one test showing 300+ mpbs to less 100 mpbs on the subsequent test.
Look on YouTube you can see speed tests of people in London on three 5g broadband and its like 400mbps at peak times.
Yes, Three customers get the fastest speeds on 5G, but it sucks when only 2 streets in every town of the capital can get 5G only. Would have to go and sit right under the mast in order to get this.
Be good if we ever get it in Mold
EE share towers with Three and its Three that holds EE up cos if your on three and connected to an EE tower the speeds are shocking like 1meg and on a three tower u get 28meg down ,,,,whish three didnt have to share towers with this BT bag of sh$t Network
Our local cell site on top of an office tower has 13 EE cells, 9 Three, 3 VF and 2 o2 – yet only EE actually covers out streat (according to cell mapper anyway) but only VF gives me about 20mbps most of the time (and stops several streets away)
EE stopped sharing towers with Three over 5 years ago. The reason you get such slow speeds on Three is they are simply over subscribed. They have Smarty, ID mobile and Superdrug all offering unlimited data for £20 a month. They themselves offer unlimited data and their “Home-Fi” service for around the £22-28 mark as well respectively. Their backhaul network simply can’t cope with demand!
We don’t have fibre still using aluminium cable !
Following the deleted comment, many people would be pleased to get solid, reliable mobile coverage with consistent good quality speech.
Why did you delete a differing yet also a valid opinion. Please see the Financial Times raising safety concerns on an untested technology at https://www.ft.com/content/848c5b44-4d7a-11ea-95a0-43d18ec715f5 . It reminds me of the 1950’s and atomic testing sites in the Pacific Ocean when Australian and British soldiers watched the mushroom plumes only to contract cancers … Do we really want to risk our children’s health for an unproven military technology just so we can download netflix whilst using the lavatory…
I live in an EE 5G city ( Hull ) where it’s been available for a year, and I can 100% guarantee that is nowhere near as fast as they claim, in fact, in 90% of available areas, it’s actually slower than their 4G. I have a pay monthly phone with EE and just upgraded, but I also have a pay monthly sim only with Vodafone, and although Vodafone don’t have 5G in my city yet, they’re much much faster on their 4G than both EE 4G & 5G. This subject is of great interest to me and I’ve tested all the main 4 MNO’s on 4G ( and 5G where available ) in my city of Hull and some surrounding areas, Vodafone are without a doubt the fastest and most consistent 4G network in Hull & East Yorkshire, and surprisingly, Three 5G is 4 times as fast as EE 5G, in Hull at least, but as is known, Three 4G is terribly slow in 80% of the country. So….. sorry for the huge comment, but I believe the MNO’s need to held accountable to their claims of 4G, 5G and calling signal, because 8 times out of 10, it’s just not the truth.
I went into the EE store in next to McDonalds, they could not connect to 5G, because the 4G speed dominated?
5G and Starlink – The Current Situation in Space
SpaceX
The launch of 57 more satellites by SpaceX in the early morning of Friday, August 7, at 1:12 AM EDT, has brought the number of SpaceX’s “Starlink” satellites orbiting in the Earth’s ionosphere up to 595.
Although this was the first launch since June 13, SpaceX has not been idle during this time. It has built additional ground stations and has received permission from the Federal Communications Commission to operate (so far) 40 ground stations, scattered throughout the United States. It has signed up customers to begin “beta testing” of the satellites that are already in orbit. Beta testing will occur initially, says SpaceX, with customers who live between 44 and 52 degrees latitude in the northern U.S. and southern Canada. SpaceX plans to begin the testing sometime in September.
Amazon
On July 29, 2020, the FCC granted Amazon’s application to launch 3,236 satellites into the ionosphere. Like the satellites of SpaceX and OneWeb, Amazon’s satellites will operate at millimeter wave frequencies and use phased array technology to cover the Earth with focused beams of radiation enabling customers to access the Internet from anywhere on Earth, on land or ocean.
Ref: https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/30/21348768/fcc-amazon-kuiper-satellite-constellation-approval
The satellites of SpaceX, OneWeb and Amazon alone, if they are all launched, will total, together, about 92,000 satellites. If you add in Iridium and Globalstar, which are already operating small constellations, and the plans of Facebook, Link, Canadian companies Kepler and Telesat, the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, Russia’s Roscosmos, and other competitors, there could soon be 100,000 satellites orbiting in the ionosphere.
The out-of-control satellite industry is one of the stupidest things humankind has ever created. It treats the life-giving envelope of our atmosphere as if we don’t depend on it. It poses an immediate threat to life on Earth, in so many ways.
The 100,000 planned 5G satellites, each with a designed lifespan of 5 to 10 years, must be constantly de-orbited and replaced. This means that at least 10,000 satellites will have to be launched every year, forever into the future. If an average of 50 satellites can be launched on each rocket, that’s 200 rocket launches per year, just to maintain the satellites used for cell phones and Internet. And it means the de-orbiting of 10,000 worn out satellites per year, burning them up in the atmosphere and turning them into toxic dust and smoke. And that’s not counting the ever-increasing numbers of weather, research, tracking, monitoring, surveillance, military, and other kinds of satellites and missiles being launched in what will soon be a parade of rockets burning prodigious quantities of fossil fuels, punching holes in our atmosphere on a daily basis, and treating the source of all life as Earth’s largest garbage pit.
EE customers benefiting at the cost of BT customers again. All the infrastructure that BT is putting in for EE’s 5g is paid for by BT’s customers yet they don’t get the benefit or access to it.
How do you work that out? Same apply to Tesco mobile?
Facts, he saying that cause BT mobile can not get 5g sim now.