EE UK Start Enabling Voice Over 5G Standalone Option on Smartphones
Some of ISPreview’s readers have informed us that mobile operator EE (BT) appears to have pushed out a new carrier update, which enables the “Voice Over 5G Standalone” network feature on Smartphones that can support it. Currently, we’ve only seen reports of this from Apple iPhone users.
Just to recap. Most 5G mobile networks today are still largely based on Non-Standalone (NSA) technology, which means they are partly reliant upon older and slower 4G infrastructure. But SA networks are pure end-to-end 5G platforms that can deliver ultra-low latency times, greater energy efficiency, better mobile broadband speeds (particularly uploads), network slicing, improved support for Internet of Things (IoT) devices, support for Voice over New Radio (VoNR or Vo5G) and increased reliability and security etc.
Speaking of which, EE’s 5G Standalone (mobile broadband) network has so far been rolled out across 50 major towns and cities, covering over 40% of the United Kingdom’s population. EE has previously also promised that the new network would introduce “higher quality voice calls even in congested areas“, although until now we haven’t seen any reports of Voice Over 5G Standalone actually being enabled on Apple devices (though some Android uses could harness it).
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The new technology essentially delivers the same as Voice over LTE (VoLTE) does for existing 4G networks, which means that it enables voice calls to be made directly over a 5G SA network (as opposed to falling back to 4G or 2G for the voice component). Over the weekend, several of our readers (credit to Harvey for being the first) noted that their iPhone’s had received a carrier update (64.1) and could now toggle VoNR on or off (seems to be enabled by default).
The customers who have seen this update report that, when in a 5GSA area, their phones now stay on 5G SA instead of going back to the NSA platform. But at present, it’s not clear how widely this update has been deployed. Naturally, we queried this change directly with EE, but the operator declined to give a comment.
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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EE would need to fix their indoor coverage issues to be able to compete with O2 and Vodafone on voice. They are a data first network.
I agree with that indoor they’re patchy at best
Hopefully the 700MHz spectrum should be able to make a difference here, as I believe it should support VoNR and will no longer require another anchor band when 5G SA is available.
on standalone yeah, now in my bathroom in London it would place itself on n28 alone (it’s deep indoors). However I guess that if it’s very relevant to you and have no VoWiFi you should simply look elsewhere than EE
Matt – 700Mh is broadly deployed alongside 800Mhz, the antenna rigging is usually shared and you don’t have one without the other.
Use of 800Mhz is essentially why EE’s 4G has a greater coverage footprint than 2G. But 5G should be broadly comparable.
Interesting comment. I moved to EE from the O2 network because I had two years of misery where live it’s so patchy indoors and not much better out.
I had no more issues since with EE
Just got the update by going to Settings – General – About and accepting the pop-up.
Can confirm on my iPhone 16 this option is now showing for me too.
Previously, at home on EE, my iPhone 16 displayed a 5G icon, but it wasn’t true 5G. Recently, I’ve only been getting 4G. Both 5G Standalone and VoiceOver5G are selected, but since I’m on the Essentials plan, I assume these settings don’t apply, and I’m excluded from Standalone until EE allows all basic plan holders to access it, right?
Almost sure EE’s VoNR/Vo5G has worked since the 5G SA launch on Samsung devices at least, paticularly the S24 range and upwards. Seems it has finally arrived to iPhone, explaining the influx of reports being mainly from Apple users as others have been able to access it for quite some time now.
When looking back, I was using it in at least October of 2024 on an S24, so not a new thing by any measure.
Previously it was only available to EE customers on the Full Works plan, I have had it since they launched that plan back in Aug/Sept last year.
All Rounder and Full Works plans both gave 5G SA and “Network Boost”, however recently they’ve apparently changed it to make 5G SA available on most handset plans with compatible devices according to their Newsroom post where they added new locations.
Not sure how that shows up or what that means for SIM Only however.
Vo5G has been working on my S23 Ultra for a few months at least now.
I can’t even get a usable mobile signal at work, EE say there’s nothing wrong with the 4G or 5G coverage in the area & would I like to buy a new phone.
Currently tethered to an ID mobile WiFi hot spot as the UKs best network is useless for me.
Not every network works everywhere unfortunately as they sometimes struggle to get a mast sited where they need it. EE works well for me, I get better coverage in the office than with other networks.
After upgrading to One UI 7 coupke of weeks ago,VoNR is happily working on Galaxy A55 altogether with 5G SA
It’s been available on Android for some time now…
Weird, I have screenshot with VoNR somewhere. From spring 2021 on EE… Maybe it was a hoax or a bug.
EE enabled VoNR on the plans they launched in September 2024 for the launch of 5GSA but no one could use it until a firmware update was released for the S24 series.
I was prompted to install the “Update” (I do not have automatic updates set) after selecting Settings -> Mobile Service. This option was not available on Saturday. I use an iPhone 13 with the current version of iOS.
Incidentally, my wireless broadband is now consistently running at an average of 110Mbps (from within a brick-built MDU) over EE 5G and also outperforms my fixed line broadband by 50pc (I was dropped back to VDSL at contract renewal due to the decommissioning of G.fast support).
It is worth noting that 5G SA on EE is only supported on iPhone 15 and later.
My question to those that can see Vo5G on their phones can you access this if you have a unlocked phone?
I have the S25 Ultra and I am with EE but i bought my phone direct from Samsung which it is unlocked. How would one know if the option is available
The EE website reports that the S25 is supported on the 5G SA network. You will see the option if you are in a 5G SA area and the device is suitably patched. There is a 5G SA availability checker on the EE site, found via a link under “Using 5G Standalone on your mobile”:
https://ee.co.uk/why-ee/5g-on-ee
I’m not in a 5G SA area yet I see the 5G SA option
@mike: OK thanks.
You mean “most UK 5G networks” are NSA. Many other countries have deployed 5G SA,it is the UK being behind as always seems the case. Many countries deployed FTTH years before the UK.
Many countries have not deployed 5G SA. Those who are deploying the technology have only been doing so since last year. They also tend to be countries higher levels of average income.
I hope this rolls out to my s24 ultra but like others say indoors signal is an issue hence it also affects the speed you get