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O2’s 5G Standalone network (which the company calls ‘5G+’) is continuing to grow, with it now being available across much of Suffolk. That includes more than 760,000 residents of 434 towns and villages, such as Ipswich, Lowestoft, Bury St Edmunds, Haverhill, Felixstowe, Sudbury, Stowmarket, Newmarket, Beccles, and Woodbridge. And because O2 aims to bring “at least 90% outdoor coverage” of 5G+ to a place before announcing it, these locations should have near comprehensive coverage.

In their latest update, Transport for London (TfL) and Boldyn Networks (which has partnered with TfL to roll out mobile coverage across the Underground), have confirmed that they’re on track to bring 4G and 5G to the entire London Underground by the end of 2026.

There have already been multiple auctions where the UK’s networks have gained access to various 5G frequencies, but we’re not done yet, because Ofcom has now announced plans to auction off 25MHz of spectrum in the 1.4GHz band. Specifically, Ofcom plans to auction the ‘upper block’ of this band, comprising 1,492MHz to 1,517MHz. All of the UK’s major networks – meaning EE, O2, and the newly combined entity of Vodafone and Three – will be free to bid without restrictions.

EE’s 5G+ rollout is continuing at a rapid pace, as the network has announced that it’s now brought the technology – which is its name for 5G Standalone – to more than 30 seaside and market towns, and will also be bringing it to 25 major events this year. As a reminder, 5G Standalone is a form of 5G that doesn’t depend on any legacy 4G infrastructure, which makes it faster and more reliable than the forms of 5G that the UK’s networks initially launched with.

If you’re looking to give your child a phone then two of the main network options you might be considering are ParentShield and EE’s Safer SIMs service, as these are both aimed at children, complete with built-in parental controls and other protections. But they’re not identical, with each service having a different selection of features, and being priced differently. So below, we’ve looked at how EE Safer SIMs compare to plans on ParentShield.

O2 has been busily rolling out its 5G Standalone network across the UK since February 2024, but until recently it hadn’t enabled the service in Wales. That though, has now changed. O2 has announced that its 5G Standalone service is now available to more than 800,000 residents and businesses in Wales, covering nine large towns and cities, 18 smaller towns, and 133 villages.

Vodafone has just announced the launch of a 5G broadband service, which might surprise some of you, since Vodafone already had a 5G broadband service. But this seems to be something of a relaunch, with the brand putting more focus on it now, and increasing its availability.

5G+ — which is EE’s name for 5G Standalone — now provides coverage to over 50 million UK residents, across more than 610 towns and cities. This milestone was recently reached, along with the announcement that 5G+ had rolled out to 15 new towns and cities, including Aberystwyth, Antrim, Bangor (North Wales), Barnsley, Cheltenham, Chichester, Cirencester, Dorchester, Erskine, Melton Mowbray, Merthyr Tydfil, Newbury, Preston, Salford, and St Austell.

O2 has just hit a remarkable milestone, as the company has switched on its 5G Standalone network for over 85% of the UK’s population. 5G Standalone – as a reminder – is an end-to-end 5G service, with no legacy 4G infrastructure in the mix. When 5G first launched in the UK, it was exclusively non-standalone, which tends to be slower and less reliable than 5G Standalone.

If you’re an O2 customer in the Greater Manchester area then you should have just got a huge upgrade, as the network has announced that it has switched on 5G Standalone (also known as 5GSA) in this area. 5G Standalone is a 5G network that’s built from the ground up for 5G, rather than relying in part on legacy 4G infrastructure.