BT Mobile has announced availability of its first 5G plans, with service going live in 45 UK towns and cities by the end of 2019.
The telecoms provide says BT Plus and BT Business customers have first dibs on the 5G services, with a solid range of 5G compatible phones up for grabs. Those handsets include the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ 5G, Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, OnePlus 7 Pro 5G, OPPO Reno 5G and Huawei Mate 20 X.
The company is touting its ability to beat established mobile providers to the punch with this launch, following EE and Vodafone as the only major carriers to currently offer 5G smartphone plans. BT 5G arrives before O2 turns on its 5G service, which is due to happen this month. Three is currently offering 5G as a home broadband service in London, ahead of its mobile launch.
BT says contracts start at just £45 a month for a 12GB allocation of data, with packages offering up to 200GB of data also available to BT Plus customers. The contract also includes access to BT Sport, meaning you’ll be able to use all of that lovely low-latency, lightning-fast connectivity to keep up on all of the latest live sport.
Related: What is 5G?
BT says the 5G network brings an increase of up to 150Mbps over LTE speeds, while providing a much more reliable connection, even in busy areas.
As for availability, BT is currently offering the speeds in 20 UK locations, including London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester, Edinburgh, Belfast, Coventry, Leicester and Bristol. The plan is to extend that by another 25 places by the time this year is over.
It is also touting reliable 5G speeds in some of Britain’s busiest places, including Waterloo, Liverpool Street and Charing Cross train stations, as well as London’s Piccadilly Circus, Manchester’s Albert Square and Birmingham’s Brindley Place.
BT Plus is the telecoms giant’s bundled fibre broadband and mobile platform, which has over 1 million UK customers. However, it’s unclear when the 5G contracts will open up to standalone BT Mobile customers.
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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.
