Ofcom famous its newest ‘Cell Issues’ report tracks rising 5G adoption and efficiency gaps amongst U.Okay. carriers
In sum – what to know:
5G progress accelerates – 5G now accounts for 28% of UK connections, with city areas nonetheless forward of rural zones.
5G SA brings velocity—however barely much less reliability – SA delivers quicker downloads and decrease latency, however with a barely decrease success charge.
Operator efficiency varies – EE leads in 5G adoption, Three in velocity and latency, whereas O2 trails in efficiency metrics.
5G know-how presently accounts for 28% of all cellular connections within the U.Okay., in line with a latest report by the nation’s telecommunications regulator Ofcom.
This determine represents a rise of 9 proportion factors year-on-year. The report additionally famous that 4G connections dropped to 71% of complete connections, down 7 proportion factors year-on-year. Solely 0.7% of connections used 3G and 0.2% used 2G, Ofcom stated, including that the urban-rural hole stays, with 29% of connections in cities utilizing 5G, in comparison with 19% in rural areas.
Ofcom’s newest ‘Cell Issues’ report tracks rising 5G adoption and efficiency gaps amongst U.Okay. carriers. The newly revealed report is predicated on crowdsourced information gathered by Opensignal between October 2024 and March 2025.
A key growth within the U.Okay. is the continuing deployment of 5G Standalone (SA), which runs on a devoted 5G core community. At the moment, 2% of all connections use 5G SA know-how, in line with the Ofcom report.
Native service Vodafone led the way in which with its 5G SA launch in 2023, adopted by O2 and EE in 2024. Three has but to roll out 5G SA know-how. In response to the report, 5G SA presents roughly 45% quicker obtain occasions in comparison with conventional 5G know-how, together with decrease latency.
Among the many UK’s cellular operators, EE had the biggest share of 5G connections (32%), whereas Vodafone had the bottom (24%) however led in 4G share (76%). O2 confirmed the very best proportion of 3G utilization (3%) and the bottom on 4G (68%).
The Ofcom report additionally acknowledged that Three had the shortest obtain occasions for recordsdata over 5G, adopted by Vodafone. Whereas EE was quickest over 4G. O2 had the bottom proportion of connections with a 100 Mbits or larger obtain velocity over each 5G (33%) and 4G (4%).
Three had the bottom latency stage over 5G, whereas EE’s was the bottom over 4G. O2’s common response occasions had been barely larger than the opposite networks on each 5G and 4G networks, though they had been nonetheless adequate to offer a very good consumer expertise for even probably the most demanding on-line actions, in line with the Ofcom report.
Enhanced cellular connectivity might unlock as a lot as £230 billion ($309 billion) in financial worth for the U.Okay. by 2035, in line with a latest examine commissioned by BT Group.
The report, developed in collaboration with Meeting Analysis, emphasizes the position of high-capacity, resilient cellular networks — notably Standalone 5G (5G SA) — in driving industrial innovation and nationwide productiveness.
Titled “Driving progress: The £230bn alternative of improved cellular networks,” the report recommends coverage motion to speed up cellular community rollouts within the nation. A few of the key proposals outlined within the examine embrace planning reform and broader spectrum availability to facilitate the deployment of extra superior cellular infrastructure.
BT estimates that industrial use of applied sciences akin to synthetic intelligence (AI) and machine studying (ML), enabled by 5G SA, might generate greater than £88 billion in financial worth alone. The BT report additionally identifies particular advantages in sectors, together with:
-Transport: Increasing cellular connectivity on railways might generate £12 billion in productiveness positive factors, whereas common street protection might assist a £45 billion financial enhance by enabling autonomous automobile applied sciences.
-Rural areas: The report famous that upgrades to 4G and 5G SA in rural areas might inject £3 billion into native economies.
-City zones: Enhanced 5G SA protection might add £26 billion via higher drone use and an extra £9.5 billion within the digital media and promoting sectors.
