LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Mobile network operator EE announced on Tuesday that it will switch on 5G mobile sites in 16 UK cities during 2019.
The company, which operates as a subsidiary of BT, said the first launch cities would be the UK's four capital cities - London, Cardiff, Edinburgh and Belfast - as well as the major English centres of Birmingham and Manchester.

It said EE was building the next-generation 5G mobile technology in the "busiest parts" of the six launch cities, including Hyde Park in London, Manchester Arena, Belfast City Airport, the Welsh Assembly, Edinburgh Waverley railway station and Birmingham's Bullring shopping centre.

EE explained that 5G technology could make a difference in busy areas, by providing a more reliable data connection to business and consumer customers, even in "the biggest" crowds.

As well as the six launch cities, through 2019 EE will also introduce 5G across the busiest parts of 10 more UK cities, which were named as Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds, Hull, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry and Bristol.

EE said it would launch with multiple smartphone partners, as well as an EE 5G Home router with external antenna, to showcase the power of 5G for broadband.

The BT Technology team was said to be "virtualising" elements of the core network for 5G rollout in 2019, and was building a "next generation" 5G core in line with the next stage of global 5G standards, with virtualised network functions on a cloud native infrastructure, creating the basis for a "smart and fully converged" agile network.

It said the BT '21st Century Network' (21CN) backbone network was petabit-class, and would ensure the future-proofed scale required to enable a world-leading 5G experience.

"Adding 5G to the UK's number one 4G network will increase reliability, increase speeds, and keep our customers connected where they need it most," said BT Consumer chief executive officer Marc Allera.

"This is another milestone for the UK and for our network journey - we'll keep evolving as we move to one, smart network for our customers.

"We have an ambition to connect our customers to 4G, 5G or WiFi 100% of the time."

Email this article to a friend

or share it with one of these popular networks:

• DIGG
• FACEBOOK
• STUMBLEUPON
• MIXX
• YAHOO BUZZ
• DELICIOUS
• REDDIT
• NEWSVINE