No additional cost and 5G roaming into four European countries, it’s all to come on Vodafone and they’re the network to announce a go-live date.
The company will be switching on the new 5G service for all their customer on July 3rd, which is just over 7 weeks from now. They’ll also be enabling roaming in the UK, Germany, Italy and Spain over the summer. The first cities in the UK to get the service will be Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool and London. Next up will be Birkenhead, Blackpool, Bournemouth, Guildford, Newbury, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Reading, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Warrington and the mighty Wolverhampton.
But wait! You’ll need a 5G phone to enjoy all this 5G speed won’t you? Well yes, and Vodafone have a range of them for you. There’s the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G (available from May 23rd), the Samsung S10 5G, the Huawei Mate 20 X 5G, and the Huawei Mate X 5G.
Prices will be unveiled next week and these 5G phones can be used on 4G, with 5G getting picked up when the network is switched on and all manufacturer software updates are completed.
In addition, Vodafone and many other networks will be moving into a more prominent role as fixed-line challengers, offering 5G home routers for blistering home broadband connectivity. Voda call their solution the “5G Gigacube”, and this will be available in the summer.
Vodafone UK CEO Nick Jeffery told us..
We started our 5G journey more than three years ago. We led the way in setting 5G standards to ensure phones and networks work well together. We upgraded our masts to be able to take 5G without disruption. And we were the first UK company to test 5G over our all-fibre core fixed and mobile network.