In an interview with RCR Wireless News, Greg McCall, chief networks officer at BT said that EE’s 5G network currently reaches nearly 80% of the U.K. population
U.K. carrier EE, owned by BT Group, expects to reach countrywide coverage with its 5G network by 2028, Greg McCall, chief networks officer at BT Group told RCR Wireless News.
“Our ambition is to enable a 5G connection anywhere in the U.K. by 2028. The strength of our underlying 4G network has put us in a good position to make widespread 5G coverage improvements outside of big cities, with EE’s 5G now available to nearly 80% of the U.K. population. This means that we’ve made strong progress in bringing 5G to smaller communities across the U.K., as well as to popular rural tourist destinations and National Parks,” McCall said.
The executive highlighted that small cells are an integral component within the operator’s mobile network, being designed for capacity offload from the macro network to ensure that even in the busiest places, customers have access to the full performance of the network.
“Our first 5G small cells – deployed in Croydon, London – are carrying over 3TB of traffic each day, demonstrating the positive impact they’re already having for the local community. We see value in both 4G and 5G small cells from this perspective, so far deploying over 1,000 nationwide,” said McCall.
These small cells are being installed on everyday street infrastructure including BT’s iconic red phone kiosks and digital street hubs, as well as lampposts and other furniture. EE previously noted that it uses advanced network analytics to identify specific locations which would benefit the deployment of small cells. EE had also stated that it is currently working with Nordic vendors Nokia and Ericsson to deploy the small cell solutions.
Commenting on the challenges being faced by the telco when it comes to the monetization of investments in the 5G field, McCall noted that the question of network monetization is a challenge for all mobile operators. “At BT Group, we’ve refreshed our network strategy so that we’re laser focused on developing a fully programmable network which is on-demand, real time, AI-first and offers best-in-class security capabilities.”
“Our new 5G Standalone (5G SA) network is a central pillar of this strategy, representing a leap forward in capability which will help to deliver on the real promise of what 5G can do, both for consumers and the enterprise – whether that’s optimizing AI and cloud-gaming experiences, or the ability to harness network slicing for dedicated quality of service.” He added.
McCall highlighted that EE’s 5G SA network was recently launched with at least 95% coverage across 15 U.K. cities. “We will more than double the number of locations that have 5G SA available by the end of this year to cover an area of more than 21 million people, almost a third of the U.K. population.”
The new 5G SA network is available in Bath, Belfast, Birmingham, Bradford, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, London, Manchester and Sheffield.
EE recently said its 5G SA uses the latest AI technology to support automation and machine learning, improving reliability and reducing energy demand by putting mobile cells into a sleep mode when not being used. EE also noted it is also exploring ways the new technology will overhaul how customers experience connectivity in the future.
The carrier also introduced a new network feature that will help improve performance in busy areas. The feature, dubbed ‘Network Boost’ will enhance performance to certain customers when the network is busy, by allocating more capacity to a customer.
