EE has confirmed the launch of its 5G service in the UK on 30 May in London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Belfast, Manchester and Birmingham. The launch will be supported by new 5G plans, plus a range of six new 5G smartphones and devices. This will be the UK's first commercial 5G service, ahead of Vodafone's 5G launch in July.
Consumers and businesses can pre-order the new 5G devices from 22 May, including smartphones from Samsung, LG, Oppo and OnePlus. EE is also launching 5GEE WiFi and 5GEE home broadband, with 5GEE home broadband launching in June and pricing and availability to follow soon. The HTC 5G Hub, for 5GEE WiFi, will be available for an upfront cost of GBP 100 and with 50GB data for GBP 50 per month, or GBP 75 per month with 100GB data.
The new 5G Smart plans will give customers access to the 5G network, BT Sport HD HDR, and an exclusive Gamer's Data Pass with zero-related data. Plans start from GBP 54 per month for 10GB data, up to GBP 74 per month for 120GB. EE is adding two new additions to the range of Swappable Benefits for 4G and 5G customers. An exclusive swappable for 5G customers is the HD HDR version of the BT Sport App (worth GBP 15 per month); and the new Gamer's Data Pass worth GBP 7.99 per month. The Gamer's Data Pass will be available from August as a Swappable for all 4G and 5G Smart plans. All 5G customers will get two Swappables from a choice of five, with customers taking the 120GB 5G plan getting three Swappables worth up to GBP 33.99 per month.
5G experiences
EE has also announced new partnerships to help develop 5G experiences for customers, including Google and Niantic. It will work with Google to bring 5G to the Google for Startups Campus in London. The partnership with Niantic will see EE be the exclusive telecom launch partner in the UK for the AR mobile game 'Harry Potter: Wizards Unite'.
In addition to the six launch cities, EE will also launch 5G in the busiest parts of Bristol, Coventry, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield in 2019. It will add more towns and cities in 2020, including Aberdeen, Cambridge, Derby, Gloucester, Peterborough, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Southampton, Worcester and Wolverhampton. 5G is being built on top of the existing 4G network in Phase 1 of the 5G roll-out.
From 2022, Phase 2 will introduce the next-generation 5G core network and increased availability of 5G-ready spectrum. Phase 3, from 2023, will introduce Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC), Network Slicing and multi-gigabit-per-second speeds. This 3rd phase will enable critical applications such as real-time traffic management of autonomous vehicle fleets, large-scale sensor networks and the 'tactile internet'.
