5G was launched in the UK on 30th May, 2019 by EE in 6 cities. Vodafone is following closely behind with its 5G network launch confirmed for 3rd July. Both Three and O2 have confirmed their 5G launches will take place in 2019.
The current position of each network - including launch dates and locations, launch devices and details of their network and trials - can be seen by following the link for the relevant operators below.
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EE launched 5G on 30th May, 2019 in 6 major cities. Six 5G phones devices are currently on sale. |
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Vodafone launched 5G in 7 cities on 3rd July, 2019 with another 8 locations added on 16th July. Two phones and one device so far confirmed. |
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Three has confirmed it will launch 5G in August, 2019 in London and has confirmed one 5G phone and one 5G device. |
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BT has confirmed it will launch 5G in 2019 and cover 6 cities initially. No devices confirmed to date. |
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O2 has confirmed it will launch 5G in October 2019 in Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, London, Slough and Leeds. Devices confirmed at launch are: Samsung Galaxy S10 5G and Xiaomi Mix 3 5G |
Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNO)
There are quite a few MVNOs in the UK. These provide mobile services via one of the five main operators above. As such it is not possible for the MVNOs to launch 5G prior to the main operators and in fact there is likely to be a hefty delay before most MVNOs launch 5G.
Other than Sky Mobile - which plans to launch at the same time as O2 - none of the MVNOs have so far outlined if or when they will be launching 5G, and it should be noted that the main operator and the MVNO have to both agree this via contract.
The most popular MVNOs and some further details for each can be found by following the read more links below.
- ASDA mobile - read more
- FreedomPop - read more
- Giffgaff - read more
- iD Mobile - read more
- Lycamobile - read more
- Plusnet - read more
- SMARTY - read more
- Sky Mobile - read more
- Tesco Mobile - read more
- Virgin Mobile - read more
- VOXI - read more
5G Coverage
Even at launch there is no way that 5G will be available nationwide. Rather, it will initially come to a few cities and likely only in certain parts of those cities.
Our guesstimate would be not to expect full nationwide 5G coverage for 4 to 5 years. But that might not be a big problem, as in most of the areas where you won't initially be able to get 5G you can still get 4G, which is pretty fast.
