Around 150,000 people come to the Canary Wharf estate every day, making it ideal for high capacity zone testing, a critical part of EE’s 5G launch programme. EE stated that it will make ten more sites live for consumer and business technology trials in east London later this month.
EEE will establish 5G coverage from the site, and assess the performance of 5G ‘New Radio’ running over the new 3.4GHz spectrum, acquired in the Ofcom auction earlier this year.
Fotis Karonis, 5G technology lead at BT Group, said: “This is the latest milestone in our 5G rollout – a live test of our 5G network, in a hugely busy ‘hotspot’, where we know there’s going to be demand from customers for increased mobile capacity. With constant upgrades to 4G, and laying the foundations for 5G, we’re working to always be able to deliver what our customers need – both consumers and the vertical industries that will make the greatest use of 5G. We were UK pioneers with 4G and today we saw the UK’s first live connections on 5G – this is a huge step forward for our digital infrastructure.”
Mark Nallen, head of technology and innovation, Canary Wharf Group, said: “Staying at the forefront of connectivity and new technologies is critical to our community, and that’s why we’re partnering with BT Group to support delivery of 5G. The consumers who live and work here will benefit from being better connected, and the enterprises based here will have the chance to partner with BT Group to understand the full capabilities of 5G.”
