EE announced the opening of nine sites for 5G NR trials, and 3 UK announced an investment plan for the development and commercial launch of 5G services
On November 7, EE announced the opening of nine sites for 5G NR trials over 3.4GHz spectrum in the busy areas of east London. EE’s first 5G trial went live in Canary Wharf in October 2018, and now 5G hotspots can be also be found in Old Street, Cheapside, St Paul’s and Bartholomew Square, Provost Street, City Road, Central Street, Finsbury Circus Garden and Clerkenwell Street. The tests aim for evaluating customer experience with businesses and consumers in the selected areas.
On the same day, 3 UK announced a £2 billion 5G investment plan for the development and commercial launch of 5G services. This budget accounts for £151 million on spectrum in the UK’s 5G auction and £250 million for the acquisition of the fixed-line service provider UK Broadband expected in February. The operator is also involved in Project Montana, a joint venture with O2 UK and energy company SSE to install fibre backhaul in the UK’s sewerage system. The company invested as well in new cloud core network infrastructure from Nokia, and made deals with Huawei to increase its data centre footprint on the 5G Network.
