Since launching 5G in 2019, UK operators have now announced coverage in more than 300 towns and cities. So far, only EE has fully explained how it defines a location as covered, with other operators being more vague. Consumers could benefit from more clarity, so that they can set their expectations appropriately when upgrading to 5G.
Ofcom has yet to publish meaningful data or provide guidance on which criteria operators should adopt to define coverage, but could play an important role in providing an independent assessment of 5G coverage for all operators.
Conversely, in South Korea (which launched commercial 5G services only a month before the UK), regulators routinely verify operators’ coverage claims and show how they compare with one another to help consumers. Closer to home, significant progress has only really been made in France, with the regulator providing maps and data on coverage.
EE has been the only UK operator so far to reveal how it defines 5G coverage
UK mobile operators launched 5G in 2019. EE started in May 2019 in six cities, followed in July 2019 by Vodafone in seven. In August 2019, Three launched in London only, and in October 2019 O2 was the last to switch on 5G, with six cities covered. Since then, all operators have gone on to announce many further locations. As of January 2021, EE’s 5G is available in 125 cities and large towns, O2 – 150 towns and cities, Three – 154 locations, and Vodafone – 100 towns and cities. At the time of writing, collectively the four operators covered 324 unique locations – a significant pace of rollout so far. However, there is little clarity as to how each operator has defined a location as covered, which makes it difficult for consumers to make comparisons.
On 14 January 2021, EE became the first operator to disclose its approach to defining coverage, revealing that it only announces places with a minimum population of 10,000 where at least a third is covered, as well as the location’s centre. So far, EE has been the only operator to explain the criteria they use, noting that it could have claimed about 200 locations by now had it adopted less stringent criteria. Other operators have more often just listed the locations where they have switched-on 5G, without providing details of the extent of their coverage in each location. O2 says it has 5G in “parts of” most major UK towns and cities, as well as “lots of smaller towns and villages”. Three states its 5G is available in “selected areas”, whereas Vodafone states it is rolling out 5G to a “growing number of locations”. All the operators invite consumers to refer to their respective coverage checker tools for more detailed information.
Ofcom can play an important role in collecting coverage data and improving consumers’ trust
In disclosing its methodology to measure coverage, EE stressed the importance of making credible claims to customers, so that they can set their expectations accordingly. If customers take out a contract on the basis that they expect 5G to be available in the town where they live, they could be disappointed if they face limited coverage. Undermining trust could result in slower uptake of 5G and devices, as customers may not prioritise adopting the new technology if they are not confident they will be able to use it meaningfully. A report published by the UK5G Innovation Network in September 2020 suggested that 5G coverage was likely to be between 10% and 11% in cities like Birmingham, London, Manchester, and as little as 2% in Liverpool. Since then, it is likely that these estimates have gone up, although the findings suggest that some operators may have claimed coverage of locations where their footprint was in fact more limited. For this reason, it is important that operators are clear and consistent about announcing 5G locations.
Ofcom could play an important role in defining common criteria and in starting to independently measure 5G availability. So far the regulator has been silent on how operators should go about announcing locations, and has only provided generic information about the state of deployments so far. Up until now, Ofcom has not measured 5G coverage in the same way as it has done with previous mobile technologies. For example, in its Connected Nations report the regulator shows the extent to which UK landmass is covered with 4G (currently 91%), and the partial or complete not-spots, i.e. the areas where signal is available only from some operators or from none at all. For 5G, this information is not yet available. In the 2020 report, all that Ofcom says about 5G is that it’s active on 3,000 base stations, meaning it is available on 8% of urban base stations and 1.5% of suburban base stations. The figure could include double counts, since operators may have used the same physical infrastructure for some sites. For the time being, Ofcom does not provide a breakdown between operators, nor does it provide an estimate of the share of premises or geography covered with 5G.
South Korea provides a useful case study, and efforts in France are worth monitoring
South Korea became the first country in the world to launch commercial 5G services in April 2019 and has already made meaningful progress with measuring 5G coverage. Korean regulators routinely verify operators’ coverage claims and show how they compare with one another. In December 2020, the latest report of the Ministry of Science and Information Technology (MSIT) compared the coverage of SKT, KT, and LGU+ across Seoul, six metropolitan cities, and 78 small and medium-sized cities. This is based on operators’ coverage maps, however the MSIT verifies the claims by carrying out its own field tests (including along transport routes and in shopping malls), and in the latest report, the MSIT found no inaccuracies in operators’ reporting.
Hot on the heels of South Korea, US operators launched 5G in several stages between April and December 2019. There, some operators are openly criticising their competitors for the claims they make about coverage and performance – for example, T-Mobile recently claimed to be ‘the only adult in the room’ on 5G because of its mix of coverage and speed. None of the three main MNOs have disclosed their criteria to declare a location as covered, and the FCC has not yet looked to measure availability.
Most European regulators find themselves in the same place as Ofcom. A notable exception is in France, where operators launched 5G starting in November 2020. Shortly after, in December 2020, the regulator ARCEP launched a 5G Observatory, which is updated monthly and shows operators’ 5G deployments across frequency bands (700–800MHz, 1.8–2.1GHz, and 3.5GHz), including maps and data at a regional level. This allows consumers to see where 5G is available network-by-network, and also – due to the different characteristics of each spectrum band – what to expect in terms of capacity and speed. This has not stopped operators from making bold claims about coverage, but it has resulted in them being more specific as to what type of 5G experience customers are likely to get, because all operators specify which frequency bands they use for 5G on their coverage maps, and which maximum speeds customers could get.
Orange says customers can get up to 2.1Gbps where it has deployed 5G in the 3.5GHz band, and up to 615Mbps where it uses the 2.1GHz band. The operator has also disclosed that it will prioritise city centres in its deployment, so that the areas that need most capacity are covered first. Similarly, SFR promises speeds up to 2Gbps where it uses 3.5GHz spectrum, and up to 995Mbps where it uses the 2.1GHz band. The operator did not disclose the approach it took when it listed 120 locations as covered, although it said it was covering 50% of the city of Nice at launch. Free Mobile claims to have “the largest 5G network in France”, covering 40% of the French population, although this is largely due to the operator’s use of the 700MHz and 800MHz bands, which Free used at 5,640 sites – the only operator in France to use this band so far.
