O2 UK Switches On 5G Standalone Mobile Broadband Network in Wales
Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has this morning announced that they’ve switched-on their next-generation 5G Standalone (5GSA / 5G+) mobile broadband network in Wales, which is said to reach more than 800,000 residents and businesses across 9 large towns and cities, 18 smaller towns, and 133 villages.
The new 5G+ network is now live across more than 86% of the UK’s population. The technology offers a pure end-to-end 5G network 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. By comparison, early 5G networks used a Non-Standalone (NSA) approach, which was hobbled by being partly reliant upon older and slower 4G infrastructure.
O2’s 5GSA rollout first began in February 2024 (here) and aims to reach “at least 90% outdoor coverage” in every location they cover. The operator’s rollout across Wales includes locations such as Cardiff, Newport, Barry, Barry Island, Cwmbran, Penarth, Risca, Chepstow, Caldicot, Monmouth, Llantwit Major, Caerleon, Dinas Powis, Radyr, Magor, Rhoose, Sully, Roglet, Tongqynlais, St Athan, Pen-y-Rheol, Thornhill, Whitchurch, and Morganstown.
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The new network is typically available to O2 customers with compatible devices “at no extra cost“, although we do wish that mobile operators would start giving geographic coverage figures for their 5G+ network as population figures always sound better than the reality often shows.
Professor Robert Joyce, Director of Mobile Access Engineering at O2, said:
“This is a significant step forward for mobile connectivity in Wales. We’re expanding 5G+ across cities like Cardiff and Newport as well as towns, villages and rural communities right across the country, bringing faster speeds, lower latency and a more reliable experience to more than 800,000 people.
“Backed by our tidy £700 million Mobile Transformation Plan and cracking innovations like O2 Satellite, we’re not just upgrading the network, we’re extending high-quality coverage into parts of Wales that have historically been harder to reach.”
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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I think the article’s headline should be re-written as “O2 UK Switches On 5G Standalone Mobile Broadband Network in South East Wales”, as all those towns and cities are concentrated in Cardiff and its surrounding areas.
As normal, O2 has little to no interest in upgrading sites to 5G in towns and cities west or north of Cardiff. Their 5G coverage anywhere else in Wales is shockingly poor when compared to the likes of EE (with almost blanket 5G everywhere in Wales) and VodafoneThree (who have an acceptable level of 5G coverage in major cities/towns west and north of the capital).
This takes me back to when 3G was launched in Wales – Orange, Three and T-Mobile led the way in south west, mid and north Wales whereas O2 dragged their feet in upgrading sites from 2G here.
Does VMO2 hate Wales or what?
Nah o2 is just the worst network.
Even where there is 5G SA it’s variable and upload is the slowest.
Ispreview just giving them coverage for no reason.
Same here moving back to EE when my contracts are up.
Well in the list given I see atleast 6 locations west of Cardiff. Think someone needs geography lessons
It has been live in Cardiff for months now, since at least October 2025 (probably earlier).
Meanwhile in my 50k town in Cambs I am getting 60-70Mbps on Spusu and 2-3Mbps on O2 postpaid. Now waiting for Spusu sim to get rid of the last O2 sim card in my household.
Meanwhile, in my town in west Wales, we barely have enough signal to make a call, despite being one of the UK’s most popular tourist destinations.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98k8xky27wo
People in Wales are lucky, no sign of 5G in Cornwall from O2
No 5G in Tylorstown and Ferndale, plus no 5G in Penygraig and surrounding areas! Would be nice to see which areas of Wales are having 5G+ switched on?. So far I get up to 60Mbps outdoors on 2100MHz, but indoors it drops to 80pMHz and abysmal less than 10.
So if the providers vergin O2 , 3, EE, sky are going to compensate the customers in UK not only Cymry, I’m asking because so far the “standard is 5G NSA hybrid with means 5 g antenna connected to LTE/4G core .
So I mean if UK citizens is being scammed by UK isps that says 5G but it or a true 5G is going to be compensation by Ofcom at least
I’m Asking. Thanks