Broadband ISP and mobile operator EE (BT) has announced the next batch of 16 new UK locations (towns and cities) where their new 5G Standalone (SA) network will be deployed “before the end of the year“, which will bring various benefits such as faster speeds, network prioritisation and other features to customers.
The majority of UK 5G mobile networks today are Non-Standalone (NSA), which means they are still partly reliant upon older and slower 4G infrastructure. But SA 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 Internet of Things (IoT) devices, support for Voice over New Radio (VoNR or Vo5G) and increased reliability and security etc.
Just to recap. EE officially launched a range of new 5G SA supporting mobile plans across 15 major UK cities last month (here), including Bath, Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield.
The next batch of 16 additional locations, which are due to go live before the end of this year, should result in EE’s new 5G SA network being able to “cover an area of more than 21 million people, almost a third of the UK population“.