EE Launch UK’s First Commercial Consumer 5G+ Network Slicing via Fast Lane
Much we first previewed on Monday of this week (here), EE Mobile (BT) has today officially launched their new ‘Fast Lane‘ feature, which is described as being the UK’s first commercial consumer implementation of Network Slicing technology on a 5G+ (5G Standalone) mobile broadband network (i.e. giving customers data traffic prioritisation in busy areas).
Network slicing is a feature of the latest end-to-end 5G Standalone (5G+) based mobile broadband networks. In short, it essentially allows for multiple virtual network slices across the same physical network. Each slice is isolated from other network traffic to give dedicated performance, with the features of the slice typically being tailored to specific use case requirements (e.g. online gaming, enhanced mobile broadband speed, payment processing at big events etc.).
Regular readers might recall that Vodafone Business (VodafoneThree) recently claimed to have launched the “UK’s first commercial 5G network slicing” service (Local Slicing), but that was focused solely on specific business users (here). The service aimed to offer guaranteed mobile network performance across a defined site or local area up to 5km2 – from stadiums and logistics hubs to university campuses and construction sites etc.
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By comparison, EE’s 5G+ ‘Fast Lane‘ feature is available to both consumers and small businesses more broadly. As previously reported, this feature is included in EE’s new ‘Full Works Plus‘ consumer plan (costing £5 more per month than the regular ‘Full Works‘ plan), and on eligible Full Works small-business plans. You’ll also need a compatible Smartphone that can handle 5G+.
Crucially Fast Lane this is not to be confused with the ‘Network Boost‘ feature on all of their Full Works (and All-Rounder) mobile plans, which delivers more traditional mobile data priority queuing at congested cell towers via Quality-of-Service (QoS) traffic prioritisation (this also works across 4G).
“Fast Lane works by anticipating network congestion and seamlessly moving customer connections into a dedicated section of EE’s 5G+ network, so that – even when the network is busiest – they can continue to stream, share and socialise with uninterrupted speed, all on the UK’s best network. [It is] designed for use in high-footfall moments of the day like rush hour and major events,” explained EE’s announcement.
Claire Gillies, CEO of BT’s Consumer Division, said:
“Powered by our advanced 5G+ network, Fast Lane gives our customers access to a dedicated 5G+ lane at the busiest times. Whether they’re live streaming a special moment from a sell-out gig or processing mobile payments and ticketing at a festival, Fast Lane helps keep customers connected even when thousands of people around them are trying to connect at the same time. This innovation builds on years of investment in EE’s 5G+ network and real-world network slicing trials, marking another milestone for the UK’s best network.
As the UK’s best network, we are committed to bringing our customers the very best in connectivity and innovation. Fast Lane is the latest example of how we’re building on that leadership with the UK’s first commercial network slice to deliver meaningful benefits to both consumers and businesses.”
The catch is that Full Works Plus (i.e. the same as Full Works but with the new Fast Lane feature) will initially only be sold as part of a new premium pay-monthly handset plan (not SIM Only), which seems likely to limit its take-up as we don’t all buy or want a handset bundle. Alternatively, Fast Lane is also available from today to new and re-signing small business customers that take out an EE Full Works business plan on a 5G+ compatible handset.
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“To help more customers understand when they are connected to EE’s 5G+ network and benefitting from advanced connectivity features like Fast Lane, eligible customers will soon start seeing a 5G+ icon appearing on their smartphones. This is already available on new and select Android devices and will be rolled out more widely on other devices later this year,” added EE. This is something we also covered earlier this week (here).
The challenge for EE is that making features like Fast Lane attractive to consumer can be quite difficult from a marketing perspective (slicing is not as easy to promote or compare like raw data speeds etc.). Some of the promotional examples we’ve seen have highlighted it as offering 5x more network priority, but such statements don’t mean much unless you can qualify them with benchmarks across lots of different situations in busy areas.
Overall, we think this is a good feature, although whether or not it’s worth paying an extra £5 every single month for something that might only bring you an occasional benefit when in certain very busy locations is much harder to judge.
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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“Our network is so advanced that we can allow you to access the internet without poor people getting in the way”.
How is this sort of nonsense okay?
I wouldn’t put that in “quotes” because they obviously didn’t write it 🙂 . An interesting interpretation though.
Bit of a dramatic way to frame it, isn’t it? It’s simply an optional premium service that gives customers who want it a more consistent connection when the network is busy. Nobody’s being pushed off the network or having their normal service taken away.
@NorthStar84 – Is it though? If you are reserving a slice of the spectrum/bandwidth for VIP customers, that will leave less for others won’t it?
Airlines reserve a bit of airplane for VIP customers who pay more and there’s no outcry about it.
Can’t see the problem myself.
When I’ve had signal with EE, I’ve never thought I needed more speed! But when I don’t have signal, it brings the question of some kind of satellite option from EE for mobile? They’re launching a white labelled StarLink, so they clearly have a partnership with Starlink already.. Even O2 beat them to the punch
Did EE acquire some new capacity for this “fast lane”, or are they taking spectrum / capacity that was previously for everyone and forcing customers to pay more in order to use it?
Also looks like the Full Works Plus plan isn’t eligible for Friends and Family discount either… so that’s ruled it out for me….
This could be viewed as a response to the issues arising from Net Neutrality.
Network providers are prevented from charging those content providers that generate higher levels of traffic on the networks, but there is nothing preventing the operators from recovering costs from the consumers of that traffic. It is not a comprehensive solution, but in cases where network capacity is constrained, part of the cost can be recovered by encouraging customers to pay for guaranteed levels of service.
Net neutrality should be expanded to cover situations like this. There should be no “fast lanes” or throttling. Everyone should be treated equally no matter what they are using their phones for.
@Anon:
Nett Neutrality should be rolled back so that content producers pay a fair price in proportion to the demands they place on network providers.
@FarLight, not a reply to me but surely without these content providers there’d be no demand for the mobile services themselves bar calling.
@OtherAnon:
I madden mention of bans.
If everyone paid for this prioritisation service then they would be earning more for delivering exactly the same service since spectrum allocation is finite. It seems that as usual it’s another way for the better off to gain an advantage of a resource that should be shared equally.
Nothing screams “our network is the best everywhere” like selling a priority service for when the network starts failing, lol.
So unless they’ve got loads of new capacity at each congest mast, they’re going to downgrade non-payers speed & QoS?
I preferred net neutrality over whoever pays the most gets a better service
Anything more than payments at a congested site like a festival… And this service can die in a ditch
Unfortunately people won’t stand together and reject this, so lame people will pay and then EE will constantly put the price up
This should not be allowed at a government level
If people are happy with the arrangement, who are you to say they should t be allowed to?
Why would government interfere in a perfect legitimate supply of services by a company to consenting, adult consumers?
If “the people” don’t like it they won’t buy and the company will stop offering it.
Wasn’t 5G standalone meant to be the game changer for EE by charging a premium for customers to use what is essentially, 5G without the 4G type backhaul? If so, is this just more carving up of their bandwidth using network slicing, a feature of 5G already?
If they can profit more by selling a ‘priority slice’ what’s the incentive to proactively upgrade bandwidth for all users?
Pretty sure it’s not a binary choice.
They can make more money whilst continuing whatever upgrades are deemed necessary… also, if you’re not happy with their coverage and services other options are available. That’s their incentive to keep on top of the game.
They are a private company and they want to make money, there is nothing inherently wrong with that.
You won’t even know you are using it.
My S26 Ultra shows 5G+ when I’m in a 5G SA area and I’m on a full works SIM only contract. So to me, this change means little.