Lyca Mobile 5G coverage checker

Lyca Mobile has 5G available in parts of at least 194 towns and cities at the time of writing, with coverage improving all the time.

It launched its 5G service in December 2021, and it uses O2’s infrastructure, so it has 5G in all the same places.

Below we’ve detailed every key aspect of Lyca Mobile’s 5G network, including the major places that it has coverage, and how it stands up to other 5G networks in the UK.

Lyca Mobile 5G Summary

How does Lyca Mobile's 5G coverage compare to others?

Comparing coverage across every town and city in the UK would be impractical, so instead we track 120 major towns and cities, with the networks stacking up in them as follows:

• O2 (and therefore Lyca Mobile) has launched 5G in 75 of the 120 locations below. 
• Three has launched 5G in 85 of the 120 locations below. 
• EE has launched 5G in 82 of the 120 locations below. 
• Vodafone has launched 5G in 44 of the 120 locations below. 

Note however that coverage won’t be comprehensive in all of these places. We’re still in the relatively early days of 5G, which means that coverage can and often will be patchy.

If we’ve ticked a location in the chart below, it simply means that a network claims to have some coverage there. As such, you should use Lyca Mobile’s official coverage checker to get a more detailed look at whether there’s 5G where you need it.

Latest locations to get Lyca Mobile 5G

The latest locations to get Lyca Mobile 5G (via O2) as of January, 2022 include Allesley, Altrincham, Birstall, Banbury, Burton upon Trent, Calverley, Cheadle, Chertsey, Chilworth, Danderhall, Grimsby, Guildford, Horwich, Joyden's Wood, Kemprow, Kettering, Maidenhead, Molesey, Newcastle-under-Lyme, Oldham, Penarth, Plympton, Richings Park, Royal Leamington Spa, Shelf, Shinfield, Shirehampton, St Albans, Stapleford, Stockton-on-Tees, Tatling End, Thornaby-on-Tees, Thorpe, Trumps Green, Virginia Water, Wallasey, Waltham Abbey, Wickersley, and Wythenshawe.

Lyca Mobile coverage checker

Lyca Mobile has its own online coverage checker which you should head to if you want a more detailed picture of its 5G coverage across the UK. This tool will also show you Lyca Mobile’s 4G, 3G and 2G coverage.

5G coverage is currently very limited, even in many of the towns and cities that have 5G at all, so it’s definitely worth checking your coverage before buying a 5G plan or a 5G phone.

Check Lyca Mobile 5G Coverage

4G coverage

Lyca Mobile also still offers 4G, 3G and 2G coverage through O2, so you’ll be able to access those network technologies when you’re somewhere with no 5G.

As you can see in the chart below, Lyca Mobile has roughly 99% 4G population coverage, which puts it in line with rivals. Its 3G and 2G coverage is similarly widespread.

5G roaming abroad

Lyca Mobile doesn’t currently offer 5G roaming, but at the time of writing only Vodafone and VOXI do. This may change over time, but for now you can roam across the EU at no extra cost on most Lyca Mobile plans, you’ll just be limited to slower network speeds.

5G network speeds

Lyca Mobile hasn’t had its 5G speeds studied yet, but O2 – which is its network partner – has, and the two are likely to be similar.

So for O2 then, a Point Topic study from September 2020 found that the average 5G download speed on the network was 115.7Mbps, that its maximum 5G download speed was 247Mbps, and that its median was 103Mbps.

But RootMetrics data from roughly the same period recorded a higher maximum speed of 302.1Mbps, and in 2021 data it recorded a highest median 5G speed of 193Mbps.

The same report found that O2’s fastest ‘everyday 5G’ median download speed was 179.3Mbps. This ‘everyday 5G’ is a metric that uses a mix of just 5G, and of moving between 4G and 5G during the same data activity.

Finally, there’s Speedtest/Ookla data from the first half of 2021, which found O2’s median 5G download speed to be 155Mbps.

So speeds seem variable, but always high, and they’re likely to increase over time as coverage and network tech improves. Of course, there’s no guarantee that Lyca Mobile’s speeds will be a match for these, but they’re likely to be similar.

Latency

Latency is the time it takes for the network to respond to a request to transfer data – so it’s the delay before a download for example even starts. Usually it’s a delay that’s not even noticeable, as it’s short enough to be measured in milliseconds (ms), but it can still affect how fast a network feels.

We don’t yet know what Lyca Mobile’s 5G latency is, but reports suggest that in general 5G latency is roughly in the range of 20-30ms at the time of writing, down from 30-50ms with 4G. And as the tech improves, the latency could drop further.

Lyca Mobile’s 5G frequency allocation

Lyca Mobile presumably uses all the same spectrum as O2, so as the chart above shows it should have access to the 3.4GHz, 3.6GHz and 700MHz bands for 5G.

The first two of those are high frequency, which is ideal for 5G as there’s typically more capacity available in high-frequency bands, which helps ensure that speeds are high and reliable even with lots of devices connecting to the network at the same time.

700MHz though can help make up for some of the limitations of high-frequency bands, as this low-frequency spectrum is better at travelling over long distances and at passing through buildings and other obstacles. Combined, they allow for a well-rounded 5G network.

In total, Lyca Mobile (through O2) should have access to 40MHz of 3.4GHz spectrum, 40MHz of 3.6GHz spectrum, and 20MHz of 700MHz spectrum, for 100MHz of 5G spectrum in total.

For comparison, Three has access to 160MHz of 5G spectrum, EE has access to 120MHz, and Vodafone has 90MHz.

Note however that all of the networks may eventually gain access to additional 5G spectrum, at future 5G spectrum auctions.