Mobile operator Vodafone has announced that their new ultrafast 5G (mobile broadband) network has just started to go live across a further 12 UK cities and towns, including bigger locations, like the city of Coventry in the West Midlands, and smaller places, such as the town of Llantwit Major in Wales.
At present the operator holds 90MHz of radio spectrum frequency in the 3.4GHz – 3.6GHz bands, and they also plan to re-farm, over time, their holdings in the lower frequency 900MHz band to carry 5G traffic. The latter will be more useful for rural coverage, while the former is better for higher data speeds around urban areas due to its shorter range and greater frequency allocation.
Vodafone claims that its 5G can deliver “average speeds” of 150-200Mbps on their network (they compare this to 23-35Mbps on 4G), with peak speeds that can reach above 1Gbps in some areas. However, it’s noted that some LTE-Advanced / 4G EVO technology areas on their network can hit peaks of 800Mbps, depending upon device capability and the number of carriers deployed, but that’s rare.
Interestingly, we haven’t had a 5G coverage update from Vodafone in quite some time, which is fairly normal as operators tend to stop broadcasting new areas about c.2 years after the start of a new rollout (listing every town, village and city in the UK can become a bit tedious). Nevertheless, they’ve today announced a further 12 locations.
We should point out that this does NOT mean Vodafone are instantly covering 100% of each location. New areas are usually only announced when they’re in the earliest stages of deployment, and not once that deployment has already reached maturity or completion. Operators tend to deploy outwards from the busiest parts of each location.
Andrea Dona, Vodafone’s Chief Network Officer in the UK, said:
“The arrival of 5G gives our customers some of the fastest mobile data speeds in the UK, and a mobile network they can rely on. It will open-up all sorts of possibilities for our consumer customers, as well as local businesses and their employees, supporting the local economy and helping to deliver a greener, more prosperous and digitally connected region.
We’re investing in our network across the UK and look forward to seeing how that investment will benefit local people and businesses.”
Customers on Vodafone’s network typically pay the same for 5G plans as they do for 4G, which with a few exceptions is now fairly common in this market.