BT has announced that its 5G service will go live on October 11 − that’s this Friday.
On day one, BT Plus and BT Halo customers will be able to access 5G speeds in 20 cities across the UK, including Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, London, Manchester, Cardiff, Leicester and Coventry. The 5G service will be available in a further 25 towns and cities across the UK before the end of the year.
Related: 5G in the UK
BT Plus and BT Halo customers will be the first people that will be able to take advantage of the company’s 5G service, and BT has said it will be the first provider to offer broadband and 5G mobile in one package.
Unfortunately, there are still some very important missing details. BT is yet to reveal which 5G phones it will be offering, and how much it will cost customers to power up to a 5G plan.
EE currently offers the OnePlus 7 Pro 5G, Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, Oppo Reno 5G and LG V50 ThinQ. Vodafone, which launched its 5G network shortly after EE, currently offers the the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G and Galaxy S10 5G.
BT owns EE, which was the first UK mobile operator to launch a 5G network, back in May.
BT’s 5G service will utilise EE’s 5G network, and it’s important to note that this doesn’t cover the entirety of the cities in which it is available. Instead, 5G is available in specific areas, and you’ll have to be in the immediate vicinity of them in order to access 5G speeds.
BT says its 5G customers will have access to “speeds typically 100-150Mbps faster than 4G connections even in the busiest areas”.
Related: Best Phones
Our very own Max Parker tested EE’s 5G service in the summer, and was generally very impressed − but to reiterate, blanket 5G coverage is still several years away.
BT has also promised to upgrade 700,000 customers and businesses around the UK to superfast broadband free of charge by June 2020. A new BT TV service is on its way too, but an announcement will be made over the coming months.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
