Vodafone has become the UK’s second mobile operator to turn on its 5G network, just over a month after EE did the same with the help of Glastonbury 2019 headliner Stormzy.

Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool, and London are the first seven cities to benefit from the service’s launch, with Birkenhead, Blackpool, Bournemouth, Guildford, Newbury, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Reading, Southampton, Stoke-on-Trent, Warrington, and Wolverhampton all joining the initial seven later this year.

Vodafone, which had Lewis Hamilton on hand to officially open its 5G service, is also the first UK provider to offer 5G roaming in Germany, Spain, and Italy – beating EE to the punch.

Another difference between the Vodafone and EE 5G launches is that Vodafone will be the first of the two companies to offer unlimited data on both 5G and 4G.

Vodafone Unlimited will launch on 10 July, promising not to charge a price premium for access to 5G and making all unlimited SIMs 5G ready.

The unlimited data plan offering will have three tiers: Unlimited Lite, Unlimited, and Unlimited Max. The cheapest, Unlimited Lite, will cost £23 per month and offer speeds of up to 2Mbps. Unlimited will cost £26 a month and offer speeds of up to 10Mbps. Unlimited Max comes in at £30 each month, providing speeds as fast as the device and network will allow.

“5G will transform the way we live and work. Our customers are streaming over 50 per cent more content today than they did last year, and with 5G the demand for data is only set to increase,” said Nick Jeffrey, Vodafone UK CEO. “That is why we want to remove the limits on data, so that customers can unlock the full potential of 5G, and we can really propel the UK into the digital age. By offering unlimited plans to our consumer and business customers, we will revolutionise the market. We will give customers all the data they need, when and where they want it.”