Vodafone has kicked off 2020 by rolling out 5G in a few new towns and cities. 5G services are now available in Belfast, Edinburgh and Leeds, while 5G coverage has also been improved in the Greater Manchester area - Cheadle, Rochdale and Stockport are now covered.

Vodafone is also pleased with itself that it's the only network offering 5G roaming at present and has now also extended this to 5G areas in the Republic of Ireland (Cork, Dublin, Limerick, Galway and Waterford) as well as the previous coverage in Spain, Germany and Italy. 

Expect stacks more 5G rollout announcements over the coming weeks as the UK networks strengthen their hand ahead of key 5G handset announcements including next month's Samsung Galaxy S11 series. Three UK is also set to debut its delayed 5G network as well. Vodafone, EE and O2 have all rolled out 5G services so far. 

There will also be stacks of new phones launched at February's Mobile World Congress, of course.

Vodafone also says it has successfully introduced technology where multiple operators share the same base station. Called MORAN, or multi-operator radio access network tech, Vodafone is working alongside O2 on its 5G network rollout so the two share infrastructure. O2 had previously announced Leeds as a 5G location, for example.