BT-owned operator EE has switched on the UK’s first first 5G trial site in Canary Wharf, London, as it prepares to launch the standard commercially next year.
EE said highly populated zones like Canary Wharf is “critical” to its 5G launch programme. 10 more 5G sites will go live in East London this month. The operator is using Huawei hardware and the 3.4GHz spectrum it acquired at auction earlier this year.
The live trial will be held in Montgomery Square, in the East-London financial district. Around 150,000 people pass through Canary Wharf daily. Firms with bases and global headquarters in Canary Wharf includes: HSBC, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan Chase, and Trinity Mirror to name a few.
BT Group 5G technology lead Fotis Karonis said: “This is the latest milestone in our 5G rollout – a live test of our 5G network, in a hugely busy ‘hotspot’, where we know there’s going to be demand from customers for increased mobile capacity.
With constant upgrades to 4G, and laying the foundations for 5G, we’re working to always be able to deliver what our customers need – both consumers and the vertical industries that will make the greatest use of 5G. We were UK pioneers with 4G and today we saw the UK’s first live connections on 5G – this is a huge step forward for our digital infrastructure.”