EE turned on the UK’s first 5G network today, across London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast, Birmingham, and Manchester. 5G connectivity is now available in limited parts of these cities, more than a month before rival Vodafone plans to launch its own 5G service.
While 5G coverage has been extremely limited with Verizon’s 5G network in the US, it’s a whole different story in London. EE has focused its initial coverage on popular tourist destinations across London.
We’re at the early stages of deployments of 5G right now, in what has become a race. But like any technology, it will improve over time. 5G in the UK is launching initially on sub-6GHz frequencies, which are good for more coverage, but they don’t have all the benefits that 5G promises. Higher frequencies allow for more bandwidth to be passed to devices, but they operate over a smaller distance, and the radio waves can’t easily penetrate walls and objects that are in between you and the 5G antenna.
This will be a particular challenge once 5G in the UK moves toward the millimeter wave (mmWave) spectrum. This promises far better speeds than I’ve tested but with the challenges of shorter transmission ranges that can be tricky when there’s no direct line of sight and interference from walls, buildings, or even rain.
It’s obviously early days for 5G in both the US and UK, but we will keep testing it and see the benefits.
