As Britain closes in on the latest wave of mobile technology – Openreach are throwing out their airwaves for regional firms to get started on rolling out the service.

The four leading mobile networks (Vodafone, EE, O2 and Three) as well as a new rival, ‘Airspan Spectrum Holdings’ can now compete for shares of the new service. This will expand the areas which can expect to receive 5G – rated service, and with 5 different companies competing, rural areas could expect a good level of coverage.

What is 5G Again?

5G is the heavily anticipated ‘5th Generation’ of mobile technology, an upgrade on the 4G that we already use daily and will provide download and viewing speeds up to 100 times faster than now. Reports suggest that an average video (5 mins) will not buffer whatsoever, and a film will take only 7 seconds to download.

Network companies want to roll this out as soon as possible to see it in action, prices start at £10m for each four sets of 10MHz in the 2.3GHz band.

As for prices for consumers like you and me, it’s going to start off very expensive, as providers will undoubtedly pass on the cost to their consumers to up their sales. The service is on trial through 2018 and is set to arrive fully within the next 18 months.

The current 5G will have to be shared in proportions of no more than 30% of total for each company, therefore if you’re looking to upgrade your phone come the time, you’ll be free for choice.

Written By Harrison Jones

References: https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3028839/bidding-begins-for-5g-spectrum-as-ofcom-auction-gets-underway https://www.statista.com/statistics/387202/most-used-mobile-networks-uk/ http://www.itpro.co.uk/mobile/28081/what-is-5g-and-how-far-are-we-from-rollout-4