BT has announced plans to expand its 5G network coverage. It aims to bring 5G to half the UK population by 2023 and start using its new core network by the same year. At the same time, the 3G network will be phased out by 2023.
3G usage is already in decline, representing less than 2 percent of data traffic over the EE network, and the spectrum will be used to enhance 5G capacity in the future. Removing legacy technologies also helps BT transition to new equipment suppliers, as required under UK security regulations, and opens up opportunities to trial open RAN infrastructure, it said.
EE is already expanding its 4G network to provide better connectivity especially in rural areas. The company said it will add over 4,500 square miles of new signal by 2025. In parallel EE’s 5G network, which was first to launch two years ago, will grow to cover half of the UK population by early 2023. Utilising the expanded 4G infrastructure, 5G will pass the geographic reach of 4G to become the largest digital network by 2028, providing signal to over 90 percent of the UK landmass.
To reach this 5G benchmark BT will deploy the recently acquired spectrum in the 700MHz band across the majority of EE sites, offering stronger indoor and wider rural coverage. Redditch, Morecambe and Cramlington have been announced as the first UK towns that will benefit, with customers able to access the signal from a growing range of 5G handsets.
To complement the 5G network, BT is developing a wide range of 'on demand' coverage solutions, building on experience gained in delivering the Emergency Services Network. Portable cells will provide temporary mobile connectivity for customers when they request it, at a lower cost than building traditional cell sites, and a fleet of rapid response vehicles will also be expanded and diversified to provide enhanced coverage, resilience or capacity in remote areas.
BT is also targeting the greater use of air and space technologies, including drones and Low Earth Orbit satellites, and last month signed an early agreement with OneWeb to drive the technology applications forward.
A new 5G core network control system will launch by 2023, built on BT’s distributed Network Cloud infrastructure, combining all its digital networks. Increased use of machine learning will be used to predict and resolve issues before they affect customers and automatically route services through the best available connection, a major step towards a fully converged and virtualised network, the operator said.
The company also plans a range of customer showcases of 5G technology, including standalone and edge compute deployments, from this summer. These technology advances will deliver low and consistent latency and BT plans to exploit them across a range of new customer experiences from next year, it said.
BT said the mobile network plans remain within its estimated peak capex budget of GBP 5 billion per year.
