Whilst Hughes have successfully been working with operators across the UK to ensure timely delivery of 5G, Three announced this week that they would fail to meet their 5G target this year.
Three cited problems as diverse as mast equipment, backhaul transmission and landlords permission. Three’s initial statement also suggests that their plans to move all clients to the cloud is more complex than originally planned.
Three launched their 5G broadband services in London in August and had planned mobile 5G services in 25 UK towns and cities by end of this year, but the plan is now pushed back into 2020. Three said however that they have a number of towns and cities prepped and ready for the switch.
The delays, whilst understandable, don’t seem to give Three much to be cheery about on the 5G front this festive season. Whilst frontrunners when it comes to 4G with 99.8% coverage against 99% for EE, Vodafone and O2, clearly they are the laggards on the 5G front with only London to their credit against 15 towns and cities for Vodafone, 12 for EE and 5 for O2.
|
City |
EE |
Vodafone |
Three |
O2 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Belfast |
✔ |
- |
- |
✔ |
|
Birkenhead |
- |
✔ |
- | Summer 2020 |
|
Birmingham |
✔ |
✔ |
Early 2020 |
Summer 2020 |
|
Bristol |
✔ |
✔ |
Early 2020 |
End of 2019 |
|
Bolton |
- |
✔ |
Early 2020 |
- |
|
Cardiff |
✔ |
✔ |
Early 2020 |
✔ |
|
Coventry |
✔ |
- |
- |
- |
|
Edinburgh |
✔ |
- |
Early 2020 |
✔ |
|
Gatwick |
- |
✔ |
- | - |
|
Glasgow |
✔ |
✔ |
Early 2020 |
Summer 2020 |
|
Lancaster |
- |
✔ |
- | - |
|
Leeds |
End of 2019 |
- |
Early 2020 |
✔ |
|
Leicester |
✔ |
- | - | - |
|
Liverpool |
✔ |
✔ |
Early 2020 |
Summer 2020 |
|
London |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
✔ |
|
Manchester |
✔ |
✔ |
Early 2020 |
Summer 2020 |
|
Newbury |
- |
✔ |
- |
Summer 2020 |
|
Plymouth |
2020 | ✔ | - | Summer 2020 |
|
Stoke-on-Trent |
- | ✔ | - | End of 2019 |
|
Wolverhampton |
✔ |
✔ |
Early 2020 | Summer 2020 |
|
Coverage Checker |
The good news for customers is that Three’s London clients in 5G areas benefit from average speeds of 232Mbps, compared to 30Mbps on 4G devices. Three is also investing £700M in a 4G network upgrade consisting of 1860 sites, to deliver faster download speeds.
In the meantime, Hughes Electronics have successfully been working with operators across the UK to ensure the timely delivery of 5G. RF, power and fibre equipment, as well as consumables, are being delivered as quickly as same-day deliveries.
Mike Shelton, Test Labs and Special Projects Senior Manager at ARCC Communications, said in a recent comment: “Having personally worked with Hughes electronics for over 2 years (…) I have absolute confidence in them (…) They are able to meet the quick turn arounds required, as well as perhaps most impressively get new products designed & manufactured for use. On a number of occasions, they have been able to support the supply of equipment and materials on a same or next day basis”