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5G in the UK: Everything you need to know

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Julian Chokkattu/Digital Trends

This year will see the first cities around the world get 5G mobile connectivity, and carriers are all starting to announce plans, hoping to entice you into buying not only a new smartphone, but also sign-up to a 5G plan. The U.S. launch is already underway — AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile are all getting prepared — and the U.K. isn’t far behind.

Here’s all the details on how to get 5G in the U.K. in 2019

Vodafone

Vodafone has become the first network to provide a switch-on date for its 5G signal in the U.K., promising seven cities will see 5G on July 3, and another 12 before the end of the year. The service will be available to both consumers and businesses, and what’s more is that for now, Vodafone will not charge more to take advantage of the faster data speeds.

The seven cities are: London, Liverpool, Manchester, Glasgow, Cardiff, Bristol, and Birmingham. By the end of the year, Birkenhead, Blackpool, Bournemouth, Guildford, Newbury, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Reading, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Warrington, and Wolverhampton will all be added to the list. Interestingly, Vodafone will also provide 5G roaming in Germany, Italy, and Spain this summer.

There will be four 5G smartphones available to buy before the July 3 launch date, with the first coming next week, along with 5G router for the home or office. The first smartphone will be the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G, released on May 23, followed by the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G and the Huawei Mate 20 X 5G, which will be available to pre-order at the end of May. The fourth phone has not been announced yet. Huawei will also supply Vodafone’s 5G home router, the 5G Gigacube, which will be released in the summer.

Vodafone states that new price plans will be revealed after May 23, and the phones will obviously work with 4G until 5G becomes available. When announced, the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G was revealed to cost 600 euros, or about 520 British pounds, and as the tariff won’t change this may represent good value. Official prices have yet to be confirmed.

EE

EE says it will launch 5G during 2019, with London, Edinburgh, Cardiff, and Belfast coming first, along with Manchester and Birmingham. An additional ten cities will join them before the end of 2019 — Glasgow, Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds, Hull, Sheffield, Nottingham, Leicester, Coventry, and Bristol.

A final date has not been confirmed yet, but the CEO said it would be during the summer, in a conversation with Pocket-lint. He also said the service would cost a little more than existing plans. EE says it will have new 5G phones to support the data speeds, and a 5G router for the home as well.

O2

Four cities — London, Cardiff, Edinburgh, and Belfast — will all see an O2 5G signal in 2019, but the exact date has not been announced. Cities beyond this will start to get 5G in 2020.

Three UK

Three UK’s 5G network will be switched on during the second half of 2019, and it will offer various 5G phones and 5G routers too. No dates, cities, or other information has been shared yet.

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