Rollout reaches new towns
EE’s 5G+ network now covers over 80% of the UK population. New locations added include Bicester, Chester and Durham in England, Portrush and Strabane in Northern Ireland, Neath and Penarth in Wales, plus Greenock, Alexandria and parts of Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park in Scotland. The operator remains on track for 99% population coverage by the end of March 2030.
Traffic doubles in twelve months
Customers are already shifting usage. 5G+ now carries more than 10% of all data on EE’s network, double the share from a year ago. Ofcom’s latest Mobile Matters report found EE delivered the strongest overall performance and most consistent results across the four UK networks.
Next steps include AI trials
BT plans to move AI-RAN from the lab to live EE sites in Birmingham next year, working with NVIDIA and Nokia. The aim is faster speeds and more responsive capacity as demand grows. The group has also set a new microwave link record of 2.8 Gbps to support rising data volumes.
Greg McCall, Chief Security and Networks Officer, BT Group said: “We’re seeing real momentum behind 5G+ as we progress towards our goal of 99% population coverage by 2030 – both in the pace of our rollout and in the amount of data customers are now using over the network. But reaching more people is only part of the story. We’re continuing to invest in making the network smarter and more responsive too, exploring technologies such as AI-RAN that could help us stay ahead of growing demand and deliver an even better experience for customers.”
We track these network upgrades on our mobile phones pages so you can see how coverage and speeds compare before choosing a plan.
