O2’s 5G Standalone now reaches over 85% of the UK

O2 has just hit a remarkable milestone, as the company has switched on its 5G Standalone network for over 85% of the UK’s population.

5G Standalone – as a reminder – is an end-to-end 5G service, with no legacy 4G infrastructure in the mix. When 5G first launched in the UK, it was exclusively non-standalone, which tends to be slower and less reliable than 5G Standalone.

So bringing 5G Standalone to so much of the UK is quite a feat, and presumably means that most of O2’s 5G network is now standalone.

A big upgrade for the West Midlands

That 85% figure was hit as a result of recently switching 5G Standalone on in 47 large towns and cities, 79 smaller towns, and 597 rural villages across the West Midlands, so if you live in that region you’re likely to have experienced these upgrades.

But with over 85% population coverage there’s a good chance that wherever you are in the UK you can now get 5G Standalone from O2. And as the network aims to achieve “at least 90% outdoor coverage” in every location they bring 5G Standalone to, the coverage shouldn’t be particularly patchy in places that are supposed to have it.

Of course, the remaining 15% of the UK population could be trickier to bring 5G Standalone to, as it’s likely that this will mostly be rural areas with low population density, making it all the more expensive for O2 to roll out 5G Standalone there.

But so far we’ve seen speedy work from O2, as it was only back in February that we reported it had brought 5G Standalone to 70% of the UK’s population.