Just two months after acquiring its 5G wireless spectrum, Vodafone UK has started laying out its plans to have 5G services up and running 2 years from now. It has also indentified 4 key application areas where 5G will play a key role in.
Vodafone UK ramped up its 5G gameplan with a recent test of the new 5G spectrum with a call connecting its Manchester hub and Newbury offices, marking the first time the 3.4 Gigahertz (GHz) radio frequency allocated for 5G is used for this purpose in the UK.
This is followed by the announcement by the Operator this week that seven cities in the UK will become its first batch of 5G trial areas, with roll-outs starting between October and December this year.
Elaborating further on its 5G strategy, Scott Petty, Chief Technology Officer, Vodafone UK, wrote in a blog that, "The 5G spectrum Vodafone acquired is in one single “contiguous” block, meaning the bands are all within the same operating frequency. This will allow us to optimise deployment, because aggregating spectrum bands – linking them together to form a wider data transmission channel, which in turn increases capacity and boosts data speeds – is easier when the bands are continuous. Using the 5G spectrum we acquired, we can support the significant data growth we expect to see, as more people start to stream AR and VR content in ultra-high definition 4K and 8K."
He added that, "We expect the 5G roll-out to follow a similar timeline as 4G. That means full commercial services are likely to arrive early in 2020, when a wider choice of compatible equipment and devices will be available. Getting to the point where 50% of all UK devices are on 5G could take another five years, meaning we would reach that critical halfway point in the mid-2020s. Our network won’t sit idle in the meantime – we’re carrying out field trials this year and next."
In his blog, Scott described the essential 5G use cases that the Operator intends to focus on - the smart home, smart transportation, vital services and medical care.
