Virgin Media O2 Switches on 5G Standalone for UK Businesses UPDATE
After launching their first commercial 5G Standalone (SA) based mobile broadband network for consumers in February 2024 (here), mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today expanded the service’s availability to include large enterprise, public sector, and SME (business) customers on eligible tariffs.
Just to recap. 5GSA networks are pure end-to-end 5G that can deliver ultra-low latency times, greater energy efficiency, better speeds (particularly uploads), network slicing, improved support for IoT devices, support for Voice over New Radio (VoNR or Vo5G) and increased reliability and security etc. Most existing 5G networks use a Non-Standalone (NSA) approach, which is hobbled by being partly reliant upon older and slower 4G infrastructure.
The move today means that “business customers in 500 towns and cities across the UK” will now be able to access this major upgrade (up from c.300 in Nov 2024), although we should caveat that related availability within those locations is usually limited. But you can normally find it in busy parts of Manchester, Liverpool, London, Lincoln, Birmingham, Sheffield, Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds, York, Belfast, Cardiff, Nottingham and Slough etc.
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Jo Bertram, MD of Business and Wholesale at VMO2, said:
“The switch on of our next-generation 5G Standalone network will make reliable, fast, on-demand connectivity a reality for our business customers. For the UK to capitalise on the benefits AI and the latest tech developments bring, high-quality network infrastructure is essential. Our 5G Standalone network provides a foundation for new services like Private Networks and Network Slicing, meeting the connectivity needs of businesses today and in the future.”
Sadly, the announcement doesn’t include any details on either packages or prices, but businesses will need a compatible device in order to benefit from this service.
UPDATE 9:39am
O2 has informed us of some additional details, which is that 5G Standalone is available to business customers on the ‘Unlimited’ and ‘Sharer’ tariffs, inclusive of aggregated tariffs, using compatible devices and SIMs. Basically, it’s no extra charge for business customers on those tariffs.
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.
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When will O2’s SA support voice calls though?
Might anyone be able to suggest how (with a non-smart phone, so the usual methods for Andorid or Apple aren’t applicable) I can work out whether, at present, voice calls on the O2 network are using 2G (which should stay on for some years yet?) or 3G (to be turned off at an unknown date this year). I want to know in advance if I’ll still be able to make and receive voice calls over 2G when 3G is gone, and if I’m presently doing 3G calling I want some feeling for how much worse the signal could be if switched down to 2G calling. I don’t care about internet data connectivity for the handset I’m asking about, just about voice and sms texts. Thank You