Vodafone UK to start 5G network in July with 5G smartphones

May 14, 2019

Vodafone on Tuesday announced it will start its 5G network on 3 July 2019 targeting consumers and business customers in seven cities across the UK.
Vodafone will offer 5G roaming in the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain over the summer. At present, Vodafone 5G services will be available in Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool and London.

Vodafone 5G will be available in Birkenhead, Blackpool, Bournemouth, Guildford, Newbury, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Reading, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Warrington and Wolverhampton this year. Vodafone earlier acquired 3400MHz spectrum in the UK.

Vodafone UK will price 5G services the same as 4G LTE for both consumers and business customers in the country. 5G services will offer 4x speed as compared with the current 4G network in the UK, Vodafone said.

5G smartphones — Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G smartphone, Samsung S10 5G, Huawei Mate 20 X, Huawei Mate X — will be available to buy online or in Vodafone stores over the summer. Vodafone will offer a 5G router for use in the home and office to give customers without a fixed line connection high-speed broadband access.

Vodafone UK CEO Nick Jeffery said: “We were the first UK company to test 5G over our all-fibre core fixed and mobile network. We can announce the largest launch of 5G in the UK and be the first to announce 5G roaming.”

Vodafone is unveiling plans for a 5G facility at the Ricoh Arena – home of Wasps rugby and netball clubs. Vodafone will equip the rugby stadium and netball centre with the latest 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) technology.

Vodafone UK’s service revenue returned to growth in the fiscal year, growing 0.6 percent vs 0.9 percent in Q3 and 0.1 percent in Q4. Growth in Vodafone UK’s service revenue was driven by higher consumer revenue — supported by growth in business fixed.

Vodafone UK added 330,000 contract customers in the year, compared to 106,000 last year — excluding Talkmobile, the low-end mobile brand which is being phased out. Consumer contract branded churn improved 1.2 percentage points year on year in Q4 to record levels.