Sure Targets 95% 5G Upgrade Completion by Mid-November 2026

Sure expects its £48 million network upgrade on Guernsey to be about 95% complete by mid-November 2026, with chief executive Alistair Beak claiming 5G speeds could rise roughly 20 times and that gigabit readings are already appearing on the network. The Channel Islands operator says the work, built on Ericsson equipment, covers its 2G, 4G and 5G layers at once, so customers on older handsets are included rather than left behind. A Guernsey Press report dated November 2 also put the operator's network growth at about 20% since the Airtel takeover.

Beak put the project's scale plainly. "We're looking at probably about a 20 times increase in speeds, and we're already seeing that you can get gigabit speeds off the 5G network, which is what we wanted," he told the paper. "And that's going to be across the entire island."

He was equally direct about the downside. Individual sites could cause service disruption for 24 or 48 hours while engineers swap radios and antennas. On a compact island network with fewer overlapping cells, a single site outage is easier to notice than it would be in a dense metropolitan grid.

How solid are the numbers?

Several figures deserve caution. The 20% growth claim does not specify whether it measures subscribers, coverage or traffic. The 20 times multiplier is a forecast for 5G users, not a measured island-wide average, and it depends heavily on the baseline: a user moving from a few megabits per second will feel a far bigger change than one already on a healthy 4G link.

Gigabit readings, meanwhile, usually come from strong signal, a nearby site and light load. They show what the hardware can do. They say less about a crowded afternoon, and no independent drive tests have yet been published. What is confirmed on the record:

• Completion target: about 95% by mid-November 2026
• Investment: £48 million
• Speeds: roughly 20x expected on 5G; gigabit already observed
• Networks covered: 2G, 4G and 5G
• Vendor: Ericsson
• Per-site disruption window: 24 or 48 hours

What does Ericsson's role mean?

Sure named Ericsson as sole equipment supplier. Beak said Ericsson "brings the scale and expertise needed to accelerate delivery of a future-ready network, enabling critical infrastructure for the islands' digital future." Luca Orsini, head of Ericsson North Europe, said the partnership would "unlock transformative capabilities for consumers and businesses across the islands" — standard vendor language that signals willingness to attach Ericsson's name to the schedule.

A single-vendor rebuild carries real advantages for a regional operator: one set of interfaces, one software release train, one escalation path. The tradeoff is dependence, since a vendor price rise or delivery slip leaves fewer alternatives than a multi-vendor network would offer.

How does this compare with other autumn upgrades?

Sure is not the only operator rebuilding its radio layer. Three other programs announced this autumn show different strategies:

• VodafoneThree announced what it calls a "world-first network upgrade" combining MOCN with existing MORAN infrastructure across a multi-vendor 4G and 5G network. The claim is unverified, and no speed, coverage or date figures were disclosed.
• Batelco selected Ericsson for 5G core modernization, Massive MIMO and AI-RAN deployment in Bahrain. No delivery dates, site counts or speed claims have been published.
• Verizon planned a nationwide rollout of the Ericsson Intelligent Controller and rApps, software that adjusts non-real-time radio settings. Testing was described as "significant" with no disclosed figures.

The pattern is clear. Sure is rebuilding radio hardware end to end after a takeover. VodafoneThree is squeezing more from shared sites. Batelco and Verizon are layering intelligence onto existing networks. Ericsson appears in three of the four projects, a concentration that locks in multi-year service revenue for the vendor.

What happens next?

Beak's earlier pledge set the standard: "We said we would deliver a new £48m mobile network quickly – one that brings 5G, faster speeds and better coverage – and we are sticking to that promise." If Sure reports completion close to the 95% mark this month, the promise held. If it slips, expect questions — and expect independent speed testers to report typical numbers below the gigabit peaks.