O2 UK battles for 5G leadership

Telefónica UK (O2 UK) continued its 5G network expansion and flagged heightened ambition to encourage 5G uptake in the country.

In mid-January 2021, the operator’s coverage reached 150 towns and cities. It means O2 can claim its rollout is thus far on track, with limited availability in several new locations — including newly reached Bournemouth, Doncaster, and Southampton. It is also said to have improved coverage in larger cities including Birmingham, London, and Manchester.

Looking good, from some angles

O2 was a little late to launch its 5G network, besting only Three UK in its October 2019 entrance when compared with the four mobile network operators (MNO). However, it looks to be catching up with its rivals steadily, thanks perhaps to an early commitment to Ericsson and Nokia rather than the since-frozen out Huawei (Telefónicawatch, #140 and passim).

EE casts doubt

In a pointed blog posted on the same day as O2’s announcement, BT Consumer Managing Director Marc Allera highlighted the various, vague metrics MNOs reference when marketing their 5G coverage.

Allera’s EE claims to have reached 125 “locations” — denoting 5G availability in 125 towns and cities across the UK — but noted that it could claim to cover “around 200” if it were to “loosen its criteria like some competitors”.

The thinly veiled attack also criticised the data behind Vodafone UK’s claim to have the “best” 5G in London and Three UK’s claim to be “the UK’s fastest”.

O2 UK Chief Operating Officer Derek McManus opted to play the green card for his part: “we’re proud of leading the charge from an environmental point of view, with 67% of our estate powered by renewable energy as we work with landlords to encourage usage of more renewable sources”.

Innovation in the wings, too

Besides expanding coverage, O2 UK also committed to partnering on another UK government-backed 5G trial, Project Vista.

The project, led by television industry body Digital TV Group, aims to leverage 5G networks to provide live coverage of sporting events using “further-evolved multimedia broadcast & multicast service” (FeMBMS): a technology that takes a single stream and broadcasts it to multiple users, reducing bandwidth and processing requirements. It also enables the broadcast of multiple angles of an event, in high-definition, with interactive elements. The project will be actioned across three ‘phases’:

First, a trial at the Digital Catapult lab in London, followed by a demonstration at an O2-branded venue.

Pending the success of the previous two phases, a live sports event demonstration at O2-sponsored Twickenham. This third phase is tentatively scheduled for between November 2021 and February 2022.

Project Vista is one of nine to be handed a share of £15.2m (€17.2m) from the UK government as part of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport’s (DCMS) £200m 5G Testbeds and Trials programme. This cohort is the second of the £28m 5G Create call — the first of which was announced in mid-2020 (Telefónicawatch, #148).

Five of the projects — 5G AMC 2, 5G Logistics, Connected Cowes, Eden Universe, and Live and Wild — will incorporate an element of open radio access network testing. This is expected to support the government’s 5G Diversification Strategy: a plan to increase vendor diversity in the wake of restrictions on the use of ‘high-risk vendors’ — principally, Huawei Technologies — which has resulted in over-reliance on Ericsson and Nokia in the UK’s infrastructure (BTwatch, #318).