It has been a long wait for 5G, but if you’re a Vodafone customer in the UK then the wait is very nearly over, as the network has announced that it will be launching its 5G service on July 3 in seven cities.
The cities in question are Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool and London. Vodafone has said that 5G will cost the same as 4G, so while you’ll need a new 5G phone, you won’t necessarily need to pay more than your current plan.
You also won’t have to wait until July 3 to get a 5G phone from Vodafone, as the network will be selling the Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G (pictured above) from May 23.
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It also plans to start pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G and Huawei Mate 20 X 5G from later this month, with the Huawei Mate X coming sometime this summer. So there will be a few 5G phones to choose from.
Additionally, Vodafone has said that it will offer 5G roaming in Spain, Italy and Germany from some point this summer, so if you’ve got a holiday planned in one of those countries then you can look forward to super-fast data there too.
If you’re not in one of the cities where Vodafone is initially launching 5G, you won’t necessarily be left out for long, as later in 2019 the network also plans to bring 5G to Birkenhead, Blackpool, Bournemouth, Guildford, Newbury, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Reading, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Warrington and Wolverhampton, though it will probably be a long time before the entire UK has coverage.
Not on Vodafone? You could still get a 5G upgrade soon, as EE, Three and O2 all plan to launch 5G services at some point this year as well, though as with Vodafone they’ll initially be limited to a handful of cities.
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