Three 5G goes live in the UK... but only for your home

(Image credit: Three)

Three has launched its 5G network in London in the UK, making it the third of the four major carries to make the next generation network available, but it's more limited than EE's and Vodafone's offering.

For now, Three 5G is only available as a home broadband connection. This means you'll be able to pick up a 5G router from a Three store and use it in your home to power all your devices.

Three's 5G router can support up to 64 devices and £35 per month will provide you with unlimited data.

By using a 5G home broadband router, you won't need to connect the box to a landline and thus, don't need to pay a line rental fee, with the router instead connecting directly to the 5G mobile signal to provide your home with internet connectivity. All you need to do is plug it into a spare power socket.

Limitations

Initially, Three's 5G home broadband network is only available in a few choice locations in Central London (Camden, Camberwell and Southwark), which means for many, this offering won't be much use right now.

Three will continue to roll out its 5G network over the coming months, and says that by the end of 2019 it plans to have 5G available in 25 towns and cities around the country.

The locations are: London, Birmingham, Bolton, Bradford, Brighton, Bristol, Cardiff, Coventry, Derby, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Leicester, Liverpool, Manchester, Middlesbrough, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Reading, Rotherham, Sheffield, Slough, Sunderland and Wolverhampton.

For those Three customers waiting for the network's 5G offering to come to smartphones, we're told it'll be available before the end of the year, but there's no firm release date just yet.

John McCann
Global Managing Editor

John joined TechRadar over a decade ago as Staff Writer for Phones, and over the years has built up a vast knowledge of the tech industry. He's interviewed CEOs from some of the world's biggest tech firms, visited their HQs and has appeared on live TV and radio, including Sky News, BBC News, BBC World News, Al Jazeera, LBC and BBC Radio 4. Originally specializing in phones, tablets and wearables, John is now TechRadar's resident automotive expert, reviewing the latest and greatest EVs and PHEVs on the market. John also looks after the day-to-day running of the site.