A recent string of scaremongering and conspiracy theories around purported 5G health risks needs some factual counterbalance.

One image has recently gone viral of a person in a ‘hazmat suit’ installing a 5G cellphone tower. The image appears to have originated from Instagram account TheOrgonizedEarth, a page spreading dangerous pseudoscience theories.

First off, that’s not a hazmat suit and would not...

Vodafone UK has set a date for its 5G network launch in addition to being the first operator to offer roaming in four European countries.

The operator will switch on its 5G network for consumers and businesses on the 3rd July 2019. Initially, it will be available in seven major cities.

Here are the first cities to go live:

• Bristol

• Birmingham

• Cardiff

• London

• Glasgow

• Manchester

• Liverpool

A further 12 cities are due to go online later this year: Birkenhead, Blackpool, Bournemouth, Guildford, Newbury, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Reading, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Warrington and Wolverhampton.

John Delaney, Associate VP of Mobility at IDC, said:

“It is clear that Vodafone is determined to be a leader...

Australian telco Optus has revealed a list of the first 50 sites that will be supplied with 5G courtesy of Ericsson.

The operator plans to build 1,200 sites across Australia by March 2020. Optus’ initial sites will be deployed across Sydney and Melbourne.

Kent Wu, Optus’ Head of Network Access Planning & Quality said:

“This is another significant milestone for Optus as we continue with our customer-focused 5G roll-out plan. We are continuing to deliver a more dynamic...

Ericsson’s new ConsumerLab report ‘5G Consumer Potential’ debunks industry myths surrounding the value of 5G for consumers and outlines the opportunities available for communications service providers.

The report highlights the potential of 5G benefitting consumers, uncovering certain realities about them to bust the four common myths, that are: 5G offers consumers no short-term benefits; there are no real...

British Telecom (BT) has launched a ‘stay fast’ speed guarantee for its broadband customers with 24/7 monitoring.

Upon signing up or extending their contract, a customer will now be provided with an upfront personalised speed.

BT will attempt to remotely optimise the line if the speed falls below this mark or will dispatch an engineer to further investigate why the expected speed is not being delivered.

The company says it will monitor customers’ speeds 24/7 to be proactive if service is...

Telecoms giant Vodafone has revealed it discovered backdoors in equipment supplied by Chinese vendor Huawei that could have enabled spying.

Acknowledging the discoveries to Bloomberg, Vodafone said the vulnerabilities date back years. The issues have since been patched, but Vodafone claims they remained for some time after Huawei claimed they'd been fixed.

If exploited, the backdoors reportedly would have...

Verizon is partnering with Google to bring YouTube TV to its global customers.

Customers will now be able to subscribe to YouTube TV through Verizon and get access to their favourite contents. The partnership will now also allow Verizon wireless mobility customers to stream the contents, which they like more through YouTube TV. For customers across platforms, Verizon will also be offering unique and high-value YouTube TV...

US telecoms giant AT&T has switched on its 5G network in seven new cities but there are still no smartphones available which support it.

The seven new cities going live this week are:

• San Francisco, CA

• San Jose, CA

• San Diego, CA

• Austin, TX

• Nashville, TN

• Orlando, FL

However, the operator notes that 5G is currently available in parts of the cities and not blanket coverage.

AT&T now has 5G connectivity live in 19 cities, making it the country's largest deployment so far. However, the lack of supporting devices means that no smartphone can access the network commercially.

A 5G hotspot by Netgear is being sold by AT&T through which users can connect their smartphones over WiFi to...

Verizon Communications is working alongside the National Football League to create 5G experiences for tech-savvy fans.

The US telecommunications giant will be the ‘official 5G innovation partner’ of the NFL as part of a two-year agreement.

In practice, what that means is new viewing experiences. Some of the plans include multi-angle camera positions and in-stadium feeds so those viewing at home can be closer to the action.

“If you deliver the right experience for our fans, the revenue will follow,”...

SK Telecom reports it managed to achieve high download speeds in the final phase of its 5G tests using a Samsung Galaxy S10.

As part of a partnership between the South Korean companies, the duo reached a download speed of 2.7Gbps. SK Telecom noted a 2GB movie can be downloaded within six seconds at these speeds.

The test was conducted over SK Telekom's 3.5GHz spectrum and also used Samsung's virtual core which supports 4G and 5G simultaneously.

A spokesperson for Samsung said: