O2 UK extends 5G standalone mobile broadband network to Cumbria

Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has this morning announced that they’ve switched-on their next-generation 5G Standalone (5G+) mobile broadband network in the Cumbria area, which is said to reach up to 219,000 people in Carlisle, Barrow-in-Furness, Workington and Ulverston etc. – delivering “faster speeds, better coverage and lower latency at no extra cost.”

O2’s rollout of 5G+ first began in February 2024 (here) and aims to reach “at least 90% outdoor coverage” in every location they cover. The operator’s latest deployment in Cumbria is said to benefit communities from Carlisle and West Cumbria to the Furness coast and the county’s market towns (some of this went live a little while ago and is only now being confirmed).

The new 5G+ network is currently live across over 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.

The full list of locations (towns and cities) in Cumbria able to access it include Carlisle, Barrow-in-Furness, Workington, Ulverston, Walney, Millom, Keswick, Seaton, Askam-in-Furness, Appleby, Arnside, Milnthorpe, Sedbergh and Longtown.

The new network is typically available to O2’s customers with compatible devices, although we still wish that mobile network operators would supply geographic coverage figures for their 5G+ network too. Population figures always sound good, but the reality is often very patchy.