Vodafone isn’t slowing down with its 5G coverage expansion, as it has now brought 5G to Belfast, Edinburgh and Leeds, as well as recently improving its coverage in Greater Manchester with the addition of 5G sites in the towns of Cheadle, Rochdale and Stockport.
That means in total Vodafone 5G is now available in 37 UK towns and cities. That still puts Vodafone behind EE, which is the UK leader for 5G coverage with 50 towns and cities, but the gap is closing fast.
And Vodafone actually is ahead if you include 5G roaming locations, as it’s the only network to offer this (other than VOXI, which it owns). And its 5G roaming has also recently improved, with the addition of 5G in Cork, Dublin, Limerick, Galway and Waterford in the Republic of Ireland.
These join existing 5G roaming locations in Germany, Spain and Italy, and make for 68 roaming locations that you can get 5G in on Vodafone, and over 100 locations in total. 5G roaming is included as standard on Vodafone’s 5G plans, so right now this a major advantage for the network if you tend to travel abroad often.
New tech for a faster rollout
Finally, Vodafone has also announced that it has become the first UK network to successfully introduce 5G multi-operator radio access network (MORAN) technology, a technology which allows multiple networks to share a single mobile base station.
Going forward that could mean fewer masts need to be erected, and in turn it should both save energy and potentially speed up the rollout of 5G for Vodafone and other networks.
Vodafone UK Chief Executive Officer Nick Jeffery said: “We have started the new year as we mean to go on. We now offer 5G in double the number of places than our nearest rival and we have significantly boosted the capacity of our network. It is ready for the arrival in 2020 of some great new 5G handsets and the next big software release bringing ultra-low latency. Together, these will push 5G to the next level.”
Whether you opt for 5G on Vodafone or another network, it’s worth making the move. Vodafone notes for example that there’s almost no buffering or lag time on 5G, making it a perfect partner for the network’s entertainment services, with the Spotify Premium, Amazon Prime Video, Sky Sports Mobile TV or NOW TV Entertainment Pass you can get with some plans working up to 10 times faster on 5G.
