Vodafone makes flying 5G plug

Vodafone has announced the launch of a 5G trial in Manchester Airport, the first of several travel-related 5G initiatives to run over the coming months.

Vodafone 5G masts are now in place at the airport, one pillar of the 5G rollout across the city. Passengers at Manchester’s Terminal One were given a free Entertainment Pass on streaming service Now TV, with the telco promising download speeds which are 4X faster than what could be achieved on 4G.

“We all love to catch up on our favourite TV shows, play games or finish off some work when travelling,” said Nick Jeffery, CEO of Vodafone UK. “5G, with its fast speeds and quick response times, will make that quick and easy, even in busy locations. We are proud to be the first provider to bring 5G to an airport and will be adding more major travel hotspots to our 5G network throughout the year.”

“We are delighted to support Vodafone’s 5G trial at Manchester Airport,” said Brad Miller, COO at Manchester Airport. “As we progress with the design and delivery of our £1bn transformation programme, we are constantly exploring how new innovations and technology can be applied to improve the airport experience.”

While the earliest handsets will not be available for a few months, Vodafone has installed a ‘Gigacube’ in the airport, effectively a hotspot, to allow passengers to connect and experience the 5G euphoria. Trials to date have made use of Massive MIMO technology to create a fixed wireless access experience for devices connected to the hotspot.

Although the 5G buzz has been accelerating elsewhere around the world at a much faster pace, the UK telcos are beginning to catch on. This trial will be one of several transport related usecases around the UK for Vodafone, Snow Hill railway station in Birmingham is another, EE has seemingly been targeting the East London hipsters, while Three recently plugged its own fashion-orientated trial.

The UK was always going to be one of the fast followers when it came to 5G, though this is not necessarily a bad position to be in. The US and South Korea might be streaming ahead, though what should be noted is the limited expanse of these initiatives. Another important factor to take into account is the assault on enterprise organizations.

As it stands, there are few usecases built for the consumer 5G ambitions, aside from downloading movies in a fraction of the time. Telcos will struggle to justify the expense of 5G with the consumer alone, but whoever most effectively engages enterprise will reap the promised rewards. For Vodafone, this means IOT, most notably the connected cow which has been paraded about tradeshows over the last couple of months.

We’ve been waiting for years, but the 5G craze is finally starting to hit the UK shores.