Vodafone goes live with 5G trial in Salford

The company announced today (25 October) that live mobile data traffic is now being streamed to and from the Internet exclusively over 5G from a site in Salford, Greater Manchester, connected to Vodafone’s nationwide converged fibre network. Vodafone claims that until now, companies have tested the technology either within a single location, or using parts of the 4G network to complete the 5G service. The data from the 5G base station is being transmitted back over the company's commercial core and transmission network, which has been upgraded to handle 5G traffic, so the trial involves the end-to-end use of 5G.

The new site in Salford is enabling Vodafone to test the technology end-to-end using 5G fixed wireless access routers, which could potentially be used by local businesses to provide very high backhaul for their Wi-Fi networks. According to a Vodafone spokesperson each router currently costs around £10,000 but the price is expected to drop rapidly as the technology matures. The site forms part of the company’s 5G trial in seven cities this year.