EE 5G is available in parts of 161 UK towns and cities at the time of writing, which makes for impressive progress, as the network launched 5G on May 30^th, 2019 in parts of just six cities.

It's important to mention that these places do not currently have ‘blanket’ 5G coverage. However, 5G can be found in many areas with a high population density, and coverage is increasing all the time.

Below we’ve listed all the key places that EE 5G is available, as well as looking at other aspects of EE’s 5G network, and how it compares to the other UK 5G networks.

EE 5G Summary

How does EE's 5G coverage compare to others?

For the 120 major towns and cities in the UK, the four major 5G networks stack up as below:

• O2 has launched 5G in 75 of the 120 locations below. 
• Three has launched 5G in 82 of the 120 locations below. 
• EE has launched 5G in 75 of the 120 locations below. 
• Vodafone has launched 5G in 44 of the 120 locations below. 

Note that a tick against a town or city in the chart below just means a network offers some coverage there – not that it’s comprehensive. In many cases 5G coverage will be very patchy, so you should always use a network’s official coverage checker before buying a 5G plan.

It’s also worth noting that indoor and outdoor 5G coverage will often differ, with the signal struggling more to penetrate some buildings. However, coverage should continue improving over time, both inside and out.

Latest locations to get EE 5G

The most recent places that EE has brought 5G to (as of July 2021) include Aldridge, Alexandria, Aylesbury, Ayr, Barnsley, Biggleswade, Blackburn, Bolton, Brighton, Chester, Colchester, Dundee, Exeter, Grantham, Gravesend, Harrogate, Lincoln, Milton Keynes, Norwich, Paignton, Poole, Portsmouth, Rickmansworth, Runcorn, Southport, Stockton-on-Tees, Stoke-on-Trent, Stratford-upon-Avon, Sunbury-on-Thames, Swansea, Swindon, Widnes, Wigan, Worcester, and York.

CHECK EE 5G COVERAGE

EE coverage checker

EE has an online coverage tool where you can enter your postcode to get an accurate estimation of the 5G coverage in your area. EE’s coverage map also shows 4G, 3G and 2G coverage.

We recommend that you check coverage in your area before buying a 5G phone or plan, as 5G isn’t yet available in a lot of places.

4G coverage

If you’re not in a 5G coverage area then you’ll have to rely on 4G or 3G coverage, just as you would have done before 5G launched.

EE likely has more 4G coverage than any rival network at over 99% population coverage, so even in places where you can’t get 5G you should be in good hands. Below you’ll find a 4G coverage comparison between EE and the other main UK networks, based on the latest available data.

5G roaming abroad

EE doesn’t offer 5G roaming at the time of writing (only Vodafone and VOXI do). However, you can roam at up to 4G speeds at no extra cost in 48 destinations – or in up to 53 on some plans.

5G Network Speeds

Based on September 2020 data from Point Topic, EE has an average 5G download speed in the UK of 149.9Mbps. Its median 5G download speed meanwhile was 130Mbps in these tests, and its maximum 5G download speed was 753Mbps – most of those speeds are UK-wide, but the maximum was recorded in Paisley.

There’s also Speedtest data from Q3 2020, which found that EE’s median 5G download speed was 134.76Mbps, which is in line with the median from Point Topic. That said, there’s signs the network may have improved here, as RootMetrics data covering the first half of 2021 puts EE’s highest median 5G download speed in tested cities at 167.5Mbps.

There’s also an ‘everyday 5G’ speed for EE from RootMetrics covering the same period. This comes in at 162.9Mbps and is a median download speed using a mix of 5G-only and ‘5G mixed mode’, the latter of which switches between 5G and 4G during the same data activity. It’s designed to more accurately reflect the real world experience of using 5G.

Those sources are among the most up to date data we have on EE, but Opensignal data from the first few months of 2020 puts EE’s average 5G download speed at 149.8Mbps – which is also in line with the Point Topic results.

Latency

Latency is how long the mobile network takes to respond to a request. So it’s the period of time before data even begins travelling. It’s measured in milliseconds (ms), but while on 4G networks it’s often around 30-50ms, with 5G it could ultimately be as low as 1ms – though don’t expect it to be that low just yet.

EE hasn’t revealed exactly how low latency its 5G network is yet, but it has said to expect an almost “instant connection”, which should be hugely beneficial to gamers, but will also help any other thing that requires the internet to seem smoother and slicker than on 4G.

According to late 2019 data from Ookla, 5G latency across networks in the UK at that stage averaged around 21-26ms. So that’s some way off 1ms, and a RootMetrics report from late 2020 recorded EE’s latency in central London as being an even less impressive 45ms.

So it seems like there’s a way to go on the latency front, but we’ll update this section as soon as we have any other useful figures.

EE’s 5G frequency allocation

Mobile signals – including 5G – rely on frequencies to travel between masts and smartphones. Different networks use some different frequencies, as well as some that are the same as each other, with EE currently using the ones listed in the chart above.

Its main 5G frequency at the time of writing is the 3.4GHz band, which is also the main 5G one used by other UK networks currently. However, it also acquired spectrum in the 3.6GHz band at the second 5G spectrum auction, and it will soon start leveraging this.

You might have noticed that these bands are higher than any of the frequencies that EE uses for 4G, 3G, or 2G, and there’s good reason for that, as higher frequencies tend to have greater available capacity, which helps make mobile performance more reliable, even when lots of users are using lots of data all at the same time.

With all the capabilities that 5G offers, and the growing number of connected devices, that capacity and reliability is vital. However high frequency spectrum isn’t without its issues. It can’t travel as far as lower frequencies, and it’s not as good at passing through objects – such as buildings – either.

As such, lower frequencies still play a role, such as the 700MHz band, which EE also acquired some spectrum in at the second 5G auction. This isn’t conventionally considered a 5G band, but it can help bolster 5G networks by making up for the weaknesses of high frequency spectrum, something which EE has now confirmed it will use this for.

In terms of how much 5G capacity EE actually has access to, it’s got 40Mhz of 3.4GHz spectrum and 40MHz of 3.6GHz spectrum, for 80MHz total, which is the same as O2, but slightly less than the 90MHz that Vodafone has and way below the 140MHz of 5G spectrum that Three has access to.

Note that for the purposes of these totals we haven’t included the 700MHz spectrum, as the networks haven’t yet all confirmed what they’ll be using it for, but if we were to include that then EE’s 5G spectrum total reaches 120MHz, Three’s reaches 160MHz, O2’s reaches 100MHz, and Vodafone’s remains at 90MHz.

In any case, it’s early days for 5G so these differences may not make a huge difference yet, and they might also be short-lived, as there are likely to be more 5G spectrum auctions, where networks can increase their holdings.