UK mobile provider O2 says it is spending £700 million this year to improve reliability and coverage of its nationwide network, a move the firm says will bring a more reliable service for customers.

O2 said customers will eventually see better coverage as it tackles the fact network traffic has more than doubled in the past five years.

This can lead to problems with capacity, where the network is overloaded and cannot perform. You might have experienced this in a city centre or at a crowded concert, for example, where your phone is showing it has a signal but you cannot make a call or send a message.

As part of the network upgrades, O2 will put up new masts, redeploy existing 4G and 5G spectrum to better effect, and roll out 1,000 ‘Giga Sites’ across the country, which promise to bring reliable signal to large areas.

O2 has just switched off its legacy 3G network, being the last of the UK’s mobile operators to do so. That has opened up more room on its airwaves to reassign faster 4G and 5G signals to better serve customers with mobile data needs.

The firm will also continue to push its 5G+ network. This technology is also known as 5G standalone, which is where 5G is broadcast to customers from masts and cell sites built with dedicated 5G network hardware. This is said to be a faster version of 5G rather than older implementations that were built on top of ageing 4G network technology.

“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,” said Jeanie York, Chief Technology Officer at Virgin Media O2.

“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.

“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.”

Last week, O2 announced it had become the first network in the UK to partner with Elon Musk’s Starlink to provide satellite connectivity to mobile customers. This aims to provide coverage in areas where cellular service is patchy or unavailable.

The service is available at no extra costs for O2 customers on Ultimate Plans, or as a £3 per month optional extra for other Pay Monthly customers.

O2’s update comes as VodafoneThree, the company formed of the merged Vodafone and Three mobile networks, last month said customers were benefitting from the combined networks at no extra cost.