Having briefly slipped behind Three in terms of total number of UK locations with 5G, EE has now leapfrogged it by switching 5G on in 21 additional towns and cities. That makes for 71 in total, which is more than any other network.
The new towns and cities with 5G include Bath, Birkenhead, Clydebank, Motherwell and Rotherham, while the network has also switched on its first 5G sites in Bransholme, Bury, Chelmsford, Cheshunt, Clevedon, Dartford, Dinnington, Loughborough, Loughton, North Shields, Rochester, Rugeley, Swadlincote, South Shields, Staines and Waltham Cross.
So by the sounds of things Bath, Birkenhead, Clydebank, Motherwell and Rotherham will currently have better EE 5G coverage than the other new locations.
But it’s not just additional towns and cities getting upgraded, as EE has also now switched 5G on in more high footfall places, such as London Bridge, London’s Thornton Heath railway station, and Bath’s Royal Crescent and Pulteney Bridge.
Check EE 5G coverage
More to come
And it’s not stopping there, as Marc Allera, CEO of BT’s consumer division, said: “We have 5G coverage in more places than any other operator, and remain focused on connecting even more towns and cities in 2020 and beyond to keep our customers connected in the busiest places.”
Indeed, we already know that EE plans to launch 5G in Aberdeen, Cambridge, Derby, Gloucester, Peterborough, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Southampton and Worcester at some point in 2020.
For comparison, Three currently offers 5G in 66 UK towns and cities, Vodafone in 41, and O2 in 21. So if you want the best 5G coverage right now then EE is the network to be on, but expect all of them to improve their coverage rapidly.
Plus, Three has more spectrum ideal for 5G than rivals, while Vodafone (and VOXI which uses its infrastructure) are the only UK networks to offer 5G roaming, so it’s not as clear cut as EE’s number of coverage locations necessarily putting it in the lead.
Though notably, independent 5G testing by RootMetrics found that EE’s 5G network achieved the highest average download speed and highest 5G availability in London, Birmingham and Cardiff, so it certainly wouldn’t be a bad network choice if it has 5G where you are.
