EE has expanded its 5G SA coverage to 17 more UK towns and cities
In sum – what to know:
EE expands 5G SA coverage – The network will reach 17 more U.K. towns and cities by December 2025, including Oxford, Portsmouth and Brighton & Hove.
ARC technology launched – EE introduces Advanced RAN Coordination, allowing mobile sites to share capacity, with deployment planned in 10 major cities.
Nationwide goal for 2026 – By spring 2026, EE targets 5G standalone availability for more than 41 million people across the U.K.
U.K. carrier EE, part of the BT Group, has expanded its 5G standalone (5G SA) coverage to 17 more towns and cities across the U.K. and introduced a new network technology, the telco said in a release.
The operator noted it has begun deploying a technology dubbed Advanced RAN Coordination (ARC), a system that lets nearby mobile sites share capacity remotely. EE said this enables faster and more consistent connectivity in high-demand areas, such as transport hubs and city centers, without the need for new physical sites. The ARC system is already live in Manchester and Edinburgh, with plans to extend to London, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool, Belfast, Cardiff, Newcastle, Sheffield, and Sunderland during 2026.
Alongside the ARC rollout, EE is adding 17 new towns and cities to its 5G standalone network by December 2025. These include Brighton & Hove, Oxford, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Reading, and Southampton, among others.
By spring 2026, the carrier is targeting 5G SA availability for more than 41 million people across the U.K.
Greg McCall, chief networks officer at BT Group, previously told RCR Wireless News that EE expected to reach countrywide coverage with its 5G network by 2028.
“Our ambition is to enable a 5G connection anywhere in the U.K. by 2028. The strength of our underlying 4G network has put us in a good position to make widespread 5G coverage improvements outside of big cities, with the telco’s 5G now available to nearly 80% of the U.K. population. This means that we’ve made strong progress in bringing 5G to smaller communities across the U.K., as well as to popular rural tourist destinations and National Parks,” McCall said.
The executive highlighted that small cells are an integral component within the operator’s mobile network, being designed for capacity offload from the macro network to ensure that even in the busiest places, customers have access to the full performance of the network.
These small cells are being installed on everyday street infrastructure, including BT’s red phone kiosks and digital street hubs, as well as lampposts and other furniture. The company previously noted that it uses advanced network analytics to identify specific locations that would benefit the deployment of small cells. The carrier had also stated that it is currently working with Nordic vendors Nokia and Ericsson to deploy the small cell solutions.
