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Mobile operator O2 (Virgin Media) has today announced the deployment of a “first-of-its-kind” mobile Giga Site in Paddington (London), which utilises Nokia’s latest dual-band massive MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) tech to boost 5G mobile broadband performance and network capacity. The plan is to deploy 1,000 more of these during 2026.
Just for a bit of context. MIMO technology typically works by harnessing multiple antennae (usually 2 to 8) to send and receive data more efficiently to lots of users (both at the mobile mast and on your Smartphone / mobile router / IoT device etc.). But Massive MIMO dials that up a major notch by enabling mobile operators to harness a greater number of antennas, potentially hundreds.
The first mast site in Paddington will also be utilising the 78.8MHz of additional radio spectrum that they recently acquired from Vodafone UK (here), which has already helped to increase O2’s total spectrum holdings to approximately 30% of UK mobile spectrum. The new site is thus capable of bringing together multiple spectrum layers with a mix of low, mid and high-band spectrum.
The change, which is said to be “one of the first deployments of its kind” on a live European network, is expected to “significantly improve 5G network performance by boosting capacity, spectral efficiency, data rates, and coverage“. The new site can deliver more than 10Gbps of throughput, which O2 says is more than their entire UK network carried at the peak of the London 2012 Olympics, and is enough to support 2,000 simultaneous 5Mbps HD video streams.
Dr Robert Joyce, Director of Mobile Access Engineering at O2, said:
“The switch on of our first Giga Site here in central London is a really important demonstration of how we are investing and innovating to continue improving our mobile network and customer experience. These new sites will deliver faster speeds, greater capacity, and more reliable connections for our customers. As we carry out upgrades and roll out hundreds more Giga Sites across the country, we’ll put our new spectrum to work helping us keep improving mobile connectivity nationwide.”
Mark Atkinson, Head of Radio Access Networks at Nokia, added:
“Our partnership with Virgin Media O2 to implement Giga Sites reflects our commitment to helping our customers differentiate with superior performance. This is one of Europe’s first dual-band Massive MIMO deployment combined with our TDD carrier aggregation solution, which showcases how our latest high-performance radios and versatile carrier aggregation solutions allow operators to fully harness the power of their spectrum, enabling the next wave of 5G services.”
The operator now plans to deploy 1,000 of these new “Giga Sites” nationwide throughout next year, which supports their wider £700m Mobile Transformation Plan for network upgrades. We should add that even if your existing Smartphone doesn’t have the same number of antennas as a Massive MIMO base station, it can still benefit from the increased capacity and more precise signal targeting that such technologies bring.