O2 UK Switches On 5G Standalone Mobile Broadband Network in Kent
Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today confirmed that they’ve switched-on their next-generation 5G+ (5G Standalone) mobile broadband network across more of Kent in England, which is said to reach “up to” 1.6 million residents across 125 towns, 303 villages and 246 hamlets – delivering “faster speeds, better coverage and lower latency at no extra cost“.
Just to recap. O2’s rollout of 5G+ / 5GSA first began in February 2024 (here) and aims to reach “at least 90% outdoor coverage” in every location they cover. The operator’s latest rollout across Kent includes locations such as Canterbury, Dover, Tonbridge, Faversham, Folkestone, Maidstone and Sevenoaks.
The new 5G+ network is currently live across around 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.
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The new network is typically available to O2’s 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.
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 live in Kent. I’m wondering if it would be worth the trouble of leaving EE to try this new 5G+ service out?
Would I see a real difference, or should I stick with EE?
Stick to EE.. Trust me O2 is rubbish
@ David Smith youre better off switching to Three and youll get access to the Vodafone 5G SA
I have checked multiple areas in Kent that O2 claim to have 5G+ and none of these are Standalone 5G. So this appears to be an incorrect claim.
EE is the same in Kent. Still only seen one location in Maidstone actually show as being 5G+ (Standalone 5G).