O2 Set for “Major” 5G Standalone Mobile Network Upgrade in Norfolk UK
Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has this morning announced that they’ve begun to switch on their next-generation 5G Standalone (5GSA) mobile broadband network in Norfolk (England) as part of its UK-wide rollout, which is now live in a total of more than 500 locations (70% of the UK’s population or c.49 million people).
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, 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.
O2’s 5GSA rollout first began in February 2024 (here) and typically aims to reach “at least 90% outdoor coverage” in every location they target. The same will be true for Norfolk and O2’s new 5GSA network has already gone live across their major hubs in Norwich, Great Yarmouth, Kings Lynn and Thetford. The rural county has a total population of around 940,000.
Advertisement
Dr Robert Joyce, Director of Mobile Access Engineering at O2, said:
“We are investing £2m every single day to improve our mobile network and provide a more reliable experience for our customers. By expanding our 5G Standalone network to Norfolk we are upgrading services for local people and are excited about the opportunities the new network will bring. This customer-centric rollout is about futureproofing our network and will pave the way for exciting customer led innovations that lie ahead.”
The operator claims that their 5GSA network is currently “the UK’s largest“, although EE are only slightly behind them on deployment progress (66% coverage). O2’s network upgrade is also available to customers with compatible devices “at no extra cost“.
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.
« New Broadband ISP Olilo Joins Freedom Fibre’s UK FTTP Network
Advertisement
Leave a Reply
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 persons 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.
So newer technology but they pass on the same speed as 2G to 3G to 4G to 5G to Proper 5G? Gotcha
Not necessarily. Both main deployed bands used in SA (Standalone) for O2 currently are improved over the former. You’re always going to get low speed on 700Mhz/n28 anyways, it is more for coverage than speed.
I can’t see any details online of where and when o2 coverage will be improved outside of the major Norfolk towns, for any service let alone 5GSA.
o2 seems to remain very much the laggard for rural coverage in Norfolk, let alone either type of 5G or indoor coverage. Voda gaining some useful infill coverage in the county from their takeover of Three.
Interesting, however there is still a lot of major coverage black holes with 02, even inside Norwich’s boundaries.
away from the A11/a47 corridors coverage is patching, even worse in coastal areas.
As a Sky customer, a few miles south of Norwich, Hopefully this is the jump we need.