.jpg)
Following Three’s massive planned 5G launch in 66 locations at the end of February, Tesco Mobile looks set to be the next UK network to launch a 5G service after that, as the company has now confirmed that it will be switching on 5G on March 3rd.
We already knew it would be coming in the first few months of this year, but that exact date is new information, and should see it land just days after Three’s roll out.
The company has also updated the list of places that it will be offering 5G in on day one, namely Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Coventry, Derby, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Leicester, Lisburn, Liverpool, London, Luton, Manchester, Newcastle, Northampton, Norwich, Nottingham, Sheffield, Slough, and Stoke-on-Trent.
That’s 23 places, so not quite as ambitious as Three’s launch, but Tesco Mobile should expand its 5G coverage quickly, as it also plans to bring 5G to the following 19 towns and cities by this summer:
Aberdeen, Birkenhead, Blackpool, Bournemouth, Cambridge, Eton, Guildford, Hove, Kingston, Milton Keynes, Newbury, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Reading, Southampton, Sunderland, Warrington, Windsor, and Wolverhampton.
That’s all broadly in line with O2, as you might expect given that Tesco Mobile uses O2’s infrastructure and spectrum.
Low prices and lots of extras
But there are reasons you might want to choose Tesco Mobile for your 5G over O2 – which already has a live and rapidly expanding 5G network. Most significantly it’s likely that Tesco Mobile 5G will be cheaper. The network currently stands out in part for its low prices and it has promised that its 5G service will be ‘affordable’.
We’re not sure yet whether 5G on Tesco Mobile will cost more than 4G, or whether it will be available at no extra cost, but we’ll let you know once we find out.
Beyond affordable prices though, being on Tesco Mobile also lets you double your Tesco Clubcard points, and if you have a Family Plan with multiple users you can also get additional perks. So it has a lot going for it, particularly for regular Tesco supermarket customers.
That said, the network faces a lot of 5G competition, as it’s not just O2 that has a live 5G network, but also EE, Vodafone, BT Mobile, VOXI and Sky Mobile, with Three offering 5G for home broadband and soon planning to expand into 5G mobile, so you’ve got a lot of choice.
If you’re struggling to choose the right network make sure to check out our 5G coverage pages, for full details of 5G availability on each.
