• O2 is set to deliver another major mobile upgrade as it commits to investing £700m into its mobile network this year through its comprehensive Mobile Transformation Plan
• This significant investment will further enhance reliability, capacity and coverage across the UK through new masts, small cells, 4G and 5G upgrades, automation and new spectrum deployment, providing customers with a superior mobile network experience
• O2 will continue to build upon its 5G+ leadership, with its next-generation network now reaching 87% of the UK population and more than 700 towns and cities
• The £700m investment follows the switch on of O2 Satellite, which made O2 the first UK operator to offer customers direct-to-device satellite connectivity and increased its landmass coverage to 95% overnight
• O2 was Europe’s most improved network last year in independent benchmarking, with the Mobile Transformation Plan focused on improving the moments that matter most for customers, including on railways, along major roads, in stadiums and city centres and at historic ‘not-spots’

O2 has confirmed that it will invest £700m into its mobile network in 2026 as its Mobile Transformation Plan gathers momentum, helping deliver a faster, more reliable and resilient connectivity experience for customers across the UK.

The latest investment is focused on improving reliability, boosting capacity and extending coverage across the country. It comes as mobile network demand reaches an all-time high, with traffic more than doubling in the last five years.

Comprehensive investment will support a programme of upgrades across the country, including the installation of more small cells and masts, the transfer and subsequent deployment of new spectrum, the redeployment of spectrum into O2’s 4G and 5G networks and the rollout of 1,000 Giga Sites nationwide. These cutting-edge sites combine different spectrum bands and technologies in a single site, boosting capacity and allowing the operator to offer strong, reliable signal to a large area.

As part of the Mobile Transformation Plan, O2 will continue to strengthen its leadership in 5G+, with its next-generation 5G standalone network now reaching 87% of the UK population – the largest footprint in the country. The operator will also move more of its customer base on to the 5G+ network, ensuring they benefit from faster speeds, improved coverage and reduced latency.

Alongside its industry-leading 5G+ network, O2 is providing a big boost to rural connectivity with the recent switch on of O2 Satellite. Last week’s launch made O2 the first UK operator to provide its customers with direct-to-device satellite connectivity, bringing connectivity to not-spots across the country for the first time. This brought coverage to an area two thirds the size of Wales, helping ensure O2 customers can always stay connected even when venturing into remote areas off the beaten track.

The operator is continuing to bring its mobile and fixed networks together and using its own fibre network to connect mobile sites, recently connecting 2,000 mobile sites to its proprietary 10Gbps fibre backhaul network. The upgraded sites benefit from an increase in capacity and throughput, translating to faster response times and more reliable performance for customers.

More network hotspots such as stadiums and transport hubs will also benefit from innovative partnerships and bespoke solutions including cutting-edge Distributed Antenna Systems (DAS) designed to significantly increase throughput and customer experience in some of the highest demand locations. This follows upgrades at stadiums including Twickenham and Wembley last year.

These upgrades are underpinned by continued investment in O2’s core network, as more services and applications are migrated into new, advanced cloud-native datacentres. This shift to secure software-driven, automated technology will make it faster for the operator to introduce new functionality, increase capacity and improve resilience so customers can benefit from reliable high-performance connectivity even as demand for data continues to grow.

Jeanie York, Chief Technology Officer at Virgin Media O2, said: “Our Mobile Transformation Plan is all about building a network that customers can rely on wherever they are and whenever they need it. This £700m investment means we can keep improving performance in the places that matter most, from busy city centres and stadiums to railways, roads and rural communities.

“We have already made significant strides in boosting coverage, capacity and reliability across the country, and our industry-leading 5G+ network now reaches 87% of the UK population. We are also the first UK operator to provide our customers with direct-to-device satellite connectivity, following the switch on of O2 Satellite. Customer satisfaction with our network continues to grow and we’ve recently been crowned the best network for coverage by uSwitch for the second year in a row.

“By continuing to invest in new infrastructure, deploying additional spectrum and embracing greater automation, we are creating the stronger, smarter network that our customers need.”

O2 was recently recognised as the most improved mobile network across Europe in Umlaut Connect’s Mobile Network Test, an independent and comprehensive benchmarking report. It was also awarded Best Mobile Network Coverage at the Uswitch Telecoms Awards for the second year in a row, which recognised the scale, reach and reliability of O2’s mobile network.