So it begins.... 5G on O2

[BOSSGOGG]

Starting to see 5G here in Edinburgh.

Testing in the wild started? Still no word from O2 on an official release date. Or if they are charging a premium for it.

Speed on par with 4G in same area for now. Let's hope they up their game.

[Chris_K]

We haven’t switched on 5G yet for public use. We continue to test and optimise the service and are looking forward to launching it later this month.

We'll share more details on our 5G launch as soon as we switch it on, so eyes peeled! 

[BOSSGOGG]

Thanks @Chris_K

I realise it's not released yet. My phone has picked up a 5g signal a few times today though.

Not much left of October 😀.

Will be interesting to see how they price it whether it will die a death or not. Three has certainly set the bar there.

[BOSSGOGG]

So, had my 5G service from O2 for 5 or so days of testing.  And it's.......meh.

From O2 definitely not worth paying a premium for ATM.

I'm testing in Edinburgh, although I travel.

Whilst having a capital city at launch is commendable ( I'm looking at you Vodafone - Glasgow at launch, come on! ) the coverage is woeful. The speed is also sub par. I'm comparing it to a colleague's OnePlus7Pro 5G on EE .

There is zero coverage in the actual city centre, with the coverage areas not making much sense. Target areas with large footfall seem to have been missed - hospital , university,main tourist areas all missed. Which is my main gripe.

Speed wise i have maxed out at 150/30

I realise that above this is largely irrelevant, but EE maxed out at 600Meg.

My work phone on EE 4g has hit c280Meg.

Early days, but O2 being behind already.

Will be interesting to see what 3 comes up with next week.

[gmarkj]

Wow. 150 is not to be sniffed at when my previous best on o2 was 82!
However. The fact you get faster results on both 4 and 5g on EE says everything.
How does the EE coverage compare?

[BOSSGOGG]

@gmarkj
Coverage between EE and O2 in Edinburgh is night and day. Pretty much city centre blanket coverage with EE . Very very patchy on O2 with the areas I would have guessed being covered , not. A real shame and another missed opportunity for them . Plus they are charging a premium for it. ( Granted so are EE )

I can see me cancelling this new contract before my 14 days are up. As above , can wait to see what three brings with them having twice the 5g spectrum.

[gmarkj]

That is a bit shocking actually.
Looking at how much of the 5g spectrum both EE and o2 have i would expect their results to be similar.
I wonder how many masts both of them have: i bet there are more EE.
The link below shows how much spectrum each network had after the last round of auctions. Looking at the 3 total i bet they provide both wide coverage and fast speeds...
https://5g.co.uk/guides/5g-uk-auction/