en.Wedoany.com Reported - VodafoneThree Chief Network Officer Andrea Dona stated at an Ericsson media briefing in London that differentiated connectivity will play a key role in enabling UK operators to achieve returns on their 5G and standalone network investments.
Responding to a question from TelecomTV, Dona noted that VodafoneThree is heavily investing to improve network reliability and baseline performance, laying the foundation for offering differentiated services. The company became the UK's largest mobile operator after the merger of Vodafone UK and Three. Dona described the merger as "a very important step for the country," driving both the company and its competitors to invest in network improvements. He said work to integrate the Vodafone UK and Three UK networks has started rapidly, including sharing base stations using multi-operator core network technology, reallocating spectrum assets to fill coverage gaps, and intelligent traffic offloading.
Dona believes that charging for premium services is common across various industries. He cited the example of a stadium during the FIFA World Cup, where operators can offer upload privileges to users willing to pay when traffic is congested. This is one way to monetize 5G standalone network investments. Dona stated that VodafoneThree aims to use standalone 5G to build "the UK's first nationwide AI-ready network." He also praised recent investments by UK competitors, noting that benchmarks show they are not standing still.
The Elevate 5G event, hosted by Ericsson, also featured a conversation with Anita Tadayon, Director of Strategy, Transformation, and Planning at Virgin Media O2. She emphasized the industry's desire to leverage network slicing and differentiated connectivity to build services, and provided an update on VMO2's 5G standalone deployment, which now covers 700 towns. Tadayon called on the industry to jointly explain the benefits of network slicing to customers, and stressed that beyond monetization opportunities, 5G standalone also brings improvements in coverage, capacity, and speed.
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