BT has announced its plans to continue its 5G rollout throughout the UK this year, offering BT Mobile and BT business customers 5G using its EE 5G Network.5G officially
launched in several cities throughout the UK at the end of May, but the coverage throughout Belfast was patchy and it was only available on the EE mobile network. Now BT has announced plans to bring 5G to its BT Mobile and BT Business customers via the EE 5G network throughout 2019.
The rollout begins this autumn starting with customers on BT's new BT Plus service, a converged home fibre and mobile plan that comes with a promise to switch on free unlimited mobile data if your fibre has a fault. Free mobile data is switched on within an hour of reporting the fault to eliminate downtime and BT will even send a free 4G Wi-Fi Mini Hub with unlimited data while your broadband is repaired.
The new service should provide BT customers with up to 1Gbit mobile internet connections with latencies as low as 20ms, making it ideal for everything from 4K video streaming to gaming. The initial launch in May rolled out the tech to just six cities (including Belfast), and the rollout will continue to a further 10 major UK cities by the end of the year. The coverage map for Belfast has also improved significantly since the initial launch, with large areas of the Greater Belfast area
now reportedly covered.
Marc Allera, CEO of BT’s Consumer division, said: "We’re bringing together the best fibre and mobile connections to help keep our customers connected, both on the go and at home. Launching 5G for BT customers will give them the opportunity to experience the fastest mobile speeds in the busiest areas of the UK, and our BT Plus customers will have the first opportunity to sign up for 5G."
About the author
Brendan is a Sync NI writer with a special interest in the gaming sector, programming, emerging technology, and physics. To connect with Brendan, feel free to send him an email or follow him on Twitter.
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