St Austell Switched On to EE’s 5G+ Network: What It Means for Locals

If your phone has felt sluggish in the middle of St Austell on a busy Saturday, that may be about to change.

The town has been added to EE’s 5G+ network, with the upgrade now live and arriving free of charge for customers ahead of the spring and summer season. EE says people in St Austell can expect faster speeds and a more reliable signal, particularly around busy transport hubs and shopping areas as visitor numbers climb in the coming months.

Part of a Wider 50 Million Rollout

St Austell sits within EE’s latest wave of 5G+ expansion, which the operator says now reaches more than 50 million people across over 610 towns and cities. That figure has overtaken EE’s original target of 41 million people by spring 2026.

The company has set itself a longer goal of bringing 5G+ to 99% of the UK population by the end of March 2030.

Other recently upgraded locations include Aberystwyth, Antrim, Bangor in North Wales, Barnsley, Cheltenham, Chichester, Cirencester, Dorchester, Erskine, Melton Mowbray, Merthyr Tydfil, Newbury, Preston and Salford.

Greg McCall, Chief Security and Networks Officer at BT Group, said the expansion shows “the pace at which we’re building the UK’s most advanced mobile network.”

Greg added that by reaching millions more people and rolling out new technologies, EE is “giving our customers more reliable and resilient connectivity in the places where it matters most.”

What 5G+ Actually Does

5G+ is EE’s most powerful form of 5G. It is designed to handle busy locations and peak times, offering faster downloads and uploads, steadier video calls and better gaming performance.

Use of the network has jumped 54% in the past six months alone, according to EE, as more people lean on mobile data throughout the day.

The upgrade in St Austell forms part of a £40 billion investment by EE into UK network infrastructure.

Faster Speeds Behind the Scenes

To squeeze more out of the network, EE has reallocated its 2.1GHz spectrum across more than 4,000 mobile sites, which it says improves indoor coverage, upload speeds and capacity in built-up areas. Another 5,000 sites are due to be upgraded in the same way over the coming months.

EE has also become the first UK network to launch five carrier aggregation on its 5G+ sites. The technology lets compatible phones combine five spectrum bands at once, resulting in download speeds that are on average 10% faster.

The ARC Rollout

Another piece of the picture is ARC, or Advanced RAN Coordination. It allows nearby mobile sites to share capacity with each other in real time, lifting network performance by 20% without putting up new masts.

EE says it is the first network in the world to deploy the technology. After launches in Manchester and Edinburgh last year, ARC is now also live on the 5G+ network in London. By the end of May 2026, it is expected to reach Belfast, Cardiff, Glasgow, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle and Sheffield.

For now, St Austell joins the list of towns picking up the 5G+ benefits, with the timing aimed squarely at the busier months ahead.