Sky Mobile customers now have access to 5G in 20 cities and towns across the UK, including London, Edinburgh, Belfast and Leeds, with plans to roll out to a total of 50 UK destinations by the summer.
“We’re excited to be launching superfast 5G on the award-winning Sky Mobile network, and even more excited to be offering it free to all Sky VIP customers,” said Paul Sweeney, Managing Director of Sky Mobile. “Sky Mobile is the ideal choice for anyone who wants a faster mobile connection and great value.”
Using the O2 5G network
Sky Mobile doesn’t currently have its own infrastructure in place, and as an MVNO (mobile virtual network operator), it partners with O2 for its network provision. In 2019 O2 delivered 4G in almost 19,000 cities, towns and villages across the UK, and partnered with other operators to develop the Shared Rural Network (SRN) proposal, to increase total UK geographic coverage from 67% to 92%. This year, O2 will be investing over £2m a day, the majority of which will go into extending its 5G network.
“Sky is a little behind its rivals in rolling out 5G, but this could be because it uses O2’s network rather than infrastructure of its own,” commented Rob Baillie, mobile comms expert at comparemymobile.com. “It’ll be interesting to see how sustainable it is for Sky to continue renting O2’s network or whether it will invest in its own masts in future as its customer base grows.”
Sky Mobile customers will get 5G access free of charge, so long as they sign up to the free loyalty programme, Sky VIP (those not signed up to Sky VIP will get 5G free for one month, after which they will pay £5 a month). And Sky Mobile’s existing tariffs start from £6 a month for a 3GB data plan, with a 9GB plan available for £12 a month. And more Sky Mobile tariffs, with up to 25GB per month for those needing more data, can be found at Sky Mobile’s website.
Sky Mobile’s new service has a range of 5G phones, including the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ 5G, and Samsung Galaxy A90 5G. And prices start from £28 a month for the Samsung Galaxy A90 5G, from £46 a month for the Samsung Galaxy Note 10+ 5G or £48 a month for Samsung Galaxy S10 5G – all including 3GB data and 5G for free.
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