EE to launch UK's first 5G service in May By Jane Wakefield

Technology reporter Published duration 22 May 2019

image copyright EE image caption London will be one of the first cities to benefit from faster services

EE will switch on its 5G service in six UK cities on 30 May, the first mobile network in the UK to do so.

People in London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Belfast, Birmingham and Manchester will be first to get faster services with plans for 10 more cities to be added this year.

Prices for 5G - which will require new handsets - will start at £54 per month for 10 gigabytes of data.

EE confirmed that its range of 5G phones would not include Huawei.

"We're pausing the launch of the new Huawei 5G smartphones coming to market," said a spokesman, adding that EE is working with both the Chinese firm and Google to "make sure we can carry out the right level of testing and quality assurance" for customers.

It follows a decision from Google to bar the smartphone maker from some updates to the Android operating system.

"This is the start of the UK's 5G journey and great news for our customers that want and need the best connections," said Marc Allera, chief executive of BT's consumer division, which owns EE.

It admits that this is just phase one of its roll-out, with "full next-generation 5G" not available until 2022.

Rival Vodafone plans to launch its 5G service in July. It has also withdrawn Huawei's 5G-enabled Mate 20X - from its line-up of phones.

Retailer Carphone Warehouse has also said it will not allow customers to pre-order Huawei's 5G handsets.

Several other countries have announced 5G services, including South Korea and the US.

Kester Mann, an analyst at research firm CCS Insight, said: "In getting 5G as soon as next week, the UK will have completed a remarkable turnaround from laggard to leader."

"Being first-to-market with 5G matters little to consumers, but is clearly an important honour for BT."

EE promised three major improvements for customers making the swap from 4G to 5G:

increased capacity - making it easier to get service in busy places such as railway stations and stadiums

average speeds will go up to 150Mbps (megabits per second) compared with a top speed of 50Mbps when 4G was launched. Some customers will get speeds of up to one gigabit, with improvements for everyone over time

low latency - of particular benefit for online games and new services such as those utilising augmented reality

The mobile operator has also signed an exclusive deal with Niantic, the makers of Pokemon Go, to carry its augmented reality game Harry Potter: Wizards United game when it launches in the UK in the summer.

Matthew Howett, a mobile analyst with research firm Assembly, said: "To convince consumers to make the leap from 4G to 5G, it's important to communicate that it's more than just about speed.

"While peak download speeds will be faster, crucially there will be more capacity, which will allow for a whole host of new applications and services."

Huawei's role

There have been concerns raised about the role played by Chinese firm Huawei, which supplies network equipment to the UK's mobile operators for their roll-out of 5G, following the US decision to curb its ability to do business in America.

Mr Allera told the BBC that EE does currently use Huawei's equipment, although it is in the process of removing it from the core of its 4G network.

The core is where the most sensitive functions occur, including device authentication, voice and data-routing and billing.

However, EE does intend to use Huawei within its radio access network (Ran), which allows users to send data to and from the core.

"There is no current government guidance to suggest we should not use Huawei, but if the guidance changes we will reconsider. That will be disruptive but there are other people that provide equipment," he said.

But Mr Howett thinks that a ban on Huawei could be problematic, not just for EE but for all the UK's operators, because it is in a significant part of their networks.

"There is little interoperability between vendors, which means it is difficult to deploy non-Huawei 5G equipment alongside existing Huawei 4G equipment.

"A ban would require operators to replace such equipment before they could deploy 5G technology," he said.

EE is planning to add 100 new 5G sites each month.

That will gradually bring coverage to:

Bristol

Coventry

Leicester

Nottingham

Sheffield

Liverpool

Hull

Leeds

Newcastle

Ten more towns and cities will get services in 2020, including Aberdeen, Cambridge, Derby, Gloucester, Peterborough, Plymouth and Portsmouth.