EE 5G hits the ground running

Sneaking in-front of Vodafone to debut on May 30, EE’s 5G proposition will be launched across six cities in the UK with a range of different devices and interesting bundling options.

While the launch of the network was announced last week, BT Consumer CEO Marc Allera gave much needed colour to the deployment plans at a media event in London and to be fair to BT and EE, it does look pretty impressive.

From today, customers will be able to pre-order bundles from EE as well as choose from multiple devices. The Samsung Galaxy S10 5G will of course be one of the options, though customers will also be privy to exclusive deals with the Samsung Fold, Oppo Reno 5G and the LG V50 ThinkQ, as well as Huawei’s FWA device and the HTC 5G Smart Hub.

While all of the devices certainly promise a lot, the LG approach is perhaps the most interesting. The device itself is pretty much as you would expect, though a separate module is also included, allowing the device to be clipped in to add an extra screen (as you can see below). Head of LG Mobile UK Andrew Coughlin said the product has been designed with multi-taskers in mind, with each screen working independently of the other.

The device also has the potential to open up entirely new experiences when it comes to gaming.

What you will not see over the next few months is a Huawei device launched in partnership with EE. Allera suggested the pause button has been hit on this relationship, due to the difficulties the firm is facing with its Android licence. If EE cannot guarantee performance of the device throughout the customers mobile contract, it will not partner with Huawei.

But onto the launch itself, six cities will experience the 5G euphoria on Day One, with another 10 added to the mix over the remainder of 2019. Building on the already completed work, EE plans to upgrade 100 base stations to 5G a month, taking the total to 1500 by the end of 2019.

“Today is Day One of our 5G journey, we are going to be the first in the UK and one of the first in Europe to bring our customers 5G,” said Allera.

Always connected is not a new concept from EE, though it would not be a surprise to see the message ramped up over the next couple of months. With 4G, broadband, wifi and, soon enough, 5G, EE has a lot of connectivity assets to shout about. When you combine these different segments with the largest geographical 4G coverage of all the UK MNOs, this is a selling point which would genuinely interest our internet-obsessed society.

That said, advertisements will need a bit of ‘sexing up’ if they are to catch the attention of the mass market.

On the speeds side, it does look like EE will be launching its 5G network with the ambition of reaching 200 Mbps. However, the message will be more focused on reliability and consistent experience as opposed to peak speeds.

“Peak speed might be the headline, but it is not the story,” said Allera.

Creative tariffs and bundling are where EE might be able to attract the most attention. 5G customers will not only gain access to faster download speeds and more reliable connections but will get the option to choose from various different zero-rating options to make the most of the connectivity euphoria. These options can be swapped out as the customer desires.

Finally, EE will be also be the exclusive partner of Niantec for the highly-anticipated follow-up to Pokemon Go; Harry Potter, Wizards Unite. Although Pokemon Go was a bit of a sham when it came to delivering on a genuine augment reality experience, the Harry Potter game looks much more immersive and truer to the definitions of AR. Considering the popularity of Pokemon Go, Niantec could certainly be onto another winner should it be able to nail the AR experience with this new title.

What is worth noting, is this is only the first phase of the EE 5G strategy. The aim will be to have 5G present in 50 cities across the UK by this time next year, though in the first phase it will only be in the busiest areas. Although the geographical rollout will be quite limited, 8% of base stations will be 5G, these assets will deliver 25% of the total traffic running across the EE network.

The second phase of the deployment, starting in 2022, will see the rollout of EE’s brand new 5G core, as well as the introduction of new spectrum. This will be when the UK will be able to experience a genuine 5G network, with the prospect of cloud gaming, AR and immersive content living up to the promise. The final phase, 2023, will see the introduction of mission critical applications focusing on the low-latency angle of 5G.

Interestingly enough, despite all the criticism faced by Huawei in the press, EE will be launching its 5G proposition with Huawei at the core of the network. This is unavoidable and will only be temporary, EE will gradually phase out Huawei from the core, but it is a fact which has seemingly been overlooked or cleverly managed out of the public domain by the BT PR team.

5G is about to become very real for the consumer and soon enough there will be a battle between the MNOs to fight for attention. EE and Vodafone might be scrapping for the 5G lead right now, but this approach from EE looks very promising.