EE Starts UK Deployment of 5G Mobile via the 700MHz Band

Mobile operator EE (BT) has today announced that they will begin rolling out the new 700MHz band for use on their ultrafast 5G based mobile (mobile broadband) network from October 2021. Redditch, Morecambe and Cramlington will be amongst the first UK towns to benefit from the extra spectrum.

Ofcom auctioned off part of the 700MHz and 3.6-3.8GHz frequency bands to EE, Three UK, O2 (VMO2) and Vodafone earlier this year (here). The 700MHz band, which was formerly used for Digital Terrestrial TV services, is ideal for delivering wide geographic coverage because related signals tend to travel further and penetrate better into buildings.

Admittedly, you don’t get as much usable spectrum to play with in the lower frequency bands, which tends to result in only a modest improvement in mobile broadband speeds. But such spectrum can still be combined with similar neighbouring bands (Carrier Aggregation), such as 800MHz and 900MHz, to help improve performance. Rural areas have the most to gain from this, but it helps in urban areas too.

In addition, EE said that they aim to grow their coverage to “over half the population by early 2023,” which they said is “four years ahead of current Government ambitions.” The latter reflects the Government’s original, if quite vague, goal of achieving “majority 5G coverage by 2027” (as set in 2017), which wasn’t even mentioned in their 2019 Conservative Manifesto. The target also did not specify if it was for population or geographic cover.

David Salam, Director of Mobile at EE, said:

“As the UK’s best network, we continue to look for ways to provide our customers with the best 5G service possible. By further enhancing the indoor 5G coverage we provide, we’re helping boost the experience for those with the latest smartphones, allowing them to get the most from them in more places across the UK.”

The “UK’s best network” claim above is, of course, open to the usual debate and interpretation, although EE do tend to come top in a lot of benchmarks and surveys, albeit not all studies or categories. The operator finishes off their announcement by reminding us that their 5G network will “also pass the geographic reach of 4G to become the UK’s largest digital network by 2028, providing signal to over 90% of UK landmass” (here).

Sadly, EE doesn’t clarify how long the 700MHz band will take to rollout across the UK or how far it will go, since band choice does tend to vary between different cell sites. On top of that you’ll also need a 5G Smartphone that can harness the new band, although many of the latest phones should have chipsets that can handle it.