Map of Vodafone’s 5G Deployment in London

It’s early days in 5G deployment and while Vodafone, as far as I know, has not yet launched their 5G network in the UK they have already published a coverage map so one can get an impression of where 5G will be available once they open up their network.

I’d like to put a screenshot in this article on the current deployment status but I’m not sure Vodafone would agree so I’ve only linked to their site above so you can check it out for yourselves. According to Spectrum-Monitoring.com, Vodafone has 50 MHz of 3.5 GHz spectrum for their 5G NR network, which is just about enough to actually make a difference compared to 4G. As can be seen on the map, by far not all base station sites have been upgraded so far and inter-site distance is around 2 km. Even for lower frequencies this is by far not enough for ubiquitous coverage. But what can be seen in this example is the limited range of indoor coverage vs. outdoor coverage of the 3.5 GHz range. According to this map I would say that 5G NR on 3.5 GHz can deliver good indoor coverage within a radius of 200 meters from the base station, put probably not at street level if there are buildings in between. It’s likely that more sites will be added over time to close the gaps as much as possible. So make a screenshot now to remember how it all started!