Vodafone, Official Connectivity Partner of The Championships, Wimbledon, is giving the nation the chance to face the world’s best tennis players, using the power of its 5G+.
- Vodafone, Official Connectivity Partner of The Championships, Wimbledon, launches its world-first* 5G+ Serve experience, giving Brits the chance to return Wimbledon serves LIVE from a first-of-its-kind robotic arm.
- Powered by the UK’s fastest 5G+ – Vodafone’s next generation 5G Standalone (5G SA) technology – the 5G+ Serve captures data from the Wimbledon broadcast feed and streams it over a dedicated network slice, recreating the exact speed and power of real serves in real time**.
- Rugby legend and TV star, Joe Marler, took on the challenge, attempting to return serves from Day One of Wimbledon, including stars like Jannik Sinner, Aryna Sabalenka, Teodora Kostovic and Miomir Kecmanović.
- This comes as new research reveals over a third of Brits (34%) think they could return a professional tennis serve, with one-in-five (19%) backing themselves to do it with no training at all.
- Men are especially confident in their tennis skills, with 43% believing they could return an elite serve – and nearly one-in-four (24%) thinking they could win a match at Wimbledon.
- Vodafone’s 5G+ Serve showcases the low latency, speed and real-time reactions of 5G+, demonstrating the power of its network, from live events through to everyday experiences like gaming and streaming.
- The 5G+ Serve will be open to those ready to put their confidence to the test on Tuesday, 30 June at Wimbledon Park, as part of Vodafone’s commitment to connect the nation to their passions and bring fans even closer to the action. Fans can book here.
In a world-first*, Vodafone is inviting Brits to put their tennis prowess to the test at its 5G+ Serve experience, returning the elite serves of Wimbledon stars as they’re delivered**.
Taking place at Wimbledon Park courts, just a stone’s throw from The Championships, the first-of-its-kind robotic arm captures live serve data from the Wimbledon broadcast feed and streams it instantly over a dedicated 5G+ network slice.
Showcasing the low latency, speed and reliability of Vodafone’s 5G+ – the UK’s fastest – the robotic arm can precisely replicate the on-court position, angle and trajectory of each serve as it leaves the players’ racket, allowing fans to try and return the shots in real time. It also stores serves from The Championships’ rich history, offering participants the chance to return iconic serves from their favourite players.
This unique experience has been developed following new research from Vodafone, which reveals just how confident Brits are when it comes to their tennis abilities.
A third of Brits (34%) believe they could return a professional serve with the right training, rising to 43% of men and more than half (51%) of those aged 35 or under. For some, that confidence goes even further, with one-in-10 (10%) backing themselves to do it in fewer than three attempts, and nearly one-in-five (19%) believing they could achieve the impressive feat with no training at all.
The data also reveals that 13% of Brits think they could return a serve from men’s world number one Jannik Sinner, and 22% from Serena Williams, while nearly one-in-four (24%) men believe they could win a match against a professional at SW19 if they had time to prepare.
One of those who took on Sinner’s challenge was rugby legend and TV star, Joe Marler, who launched the experience on day one of the tournament:
“I was up for the challenge – I’m not a professional tennis player, but I’ve got decent reactions and some padel experience, so I backed myself going in. Safe to say, I was humbled. It’s a lot harder than it looks!
“It was amazing though. Vodafone’s 5G+ Serve really shows you just how fast and powerful the shots are. The atmosphere of live sport is incredible, and it’s great that Vodafone can use its network to give people a whole new way to experience the excitement and adrenaline of the game.”
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Vodafone’s research also highlighted that Brits vastly underestimate how fast professional serves can be, with average guesses at 84mph for men and 71mph for women. In reality, elite serves clock in at an average of 117mph and 99mph respectively, showing how much of a surprise those facing the 5G+ Serve might be in for.
Two-time Wimbledon doubles champion and co-host of ‘The Set’ podcast, Jamie Murray, said the reality of returning serves is far tougher than most Brits imagine:
“Returning a top level serve is one of the hardest things an athlete can do, and not something most people will ever truly experience. When you’re facing an opponent, quick reaction times matter, but it’s also about spotting subtle cues and anticipating the shot – often before the ball has even left the racket.
“When you do nail that return, it’s incredibly satisfying, and it’s brilliant that Vodafone can give people the chance to experience that rush for themselves, especially knowing they’re up against the very best in that moment.”
Innovative fan experiences at sporting events are cited by 41% Brits as an important factor in bringing them closer to the action. For some, this includes exploring new viewing angles through AR or VR (16%) while, for others (12%), it’s about having the chance to feel what it’s like to be an elite athlete.
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The 5G+ Serve is enabled by Vodafone’s 5G+ Local Slicing, which sees a dedicated ‘slice’ of the network reserved to ensure fast, smooth and uninterrupted connectivity***. This means each serve can be recreated instantly**, even during peak demand – in this case, when tens of thousands of fans are gathering across the iconic grounds and in the famous Wimbledon queue.
Rob Winterschladen, Consumer Director, VodafoneThree, said:
“Connecting people to the moments that matter is at the heart of what we do at VodafoneThree, and as Official Connectivity Partner to The Championships, Wimbledon, we’re giving fans a world-first experience with our 5G+ Serve.
“Powered by the UK’s fastest 5G+, we’re bringing fans closer to the action, while demonstrating how faster speeds and more reliable connectivity can unlock new experiences from live events to gaming, and streaming the latest match point.”
Alongside enabling new fan experiences, connectivity plays a central role in bringing people closer to their sporting passions. Half of Brits (50%) say streaming live sport on the go is a priority, with ‘high-quality picture’ (39%), ‘watching in real time’ (39%), and ‘no buffering’ (37%) mattering most.
As Official Connectivity Partner of The Championships, Wimbledon, Vodafone has enhanced its 5G network across Wimbledon and the grounds, delivering what customers care about most: increased capacity, with faster speeds, over a wider area. This means more reliable connectivity and better performance when the network is busiest.
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Following the merger between Vodafone and Three in June 2025, Three customers can also now enjoy the same seamless connectivity during The Championships. It’s all part of VodafoneThree’s £11 billion investment to build the UK’s best network, delivering high-quality connectivity to 99% of the UK population by 2030, and 99.96% by 2034.
The one-of-a-kind 5G+ Serve experience is open to fans on Tuesday, 30 June at Wimbledon Park Tennis Courts, from 11am until 7pm. The experience is free and slots are available to book on a first-come, first-served basis.
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Notes to Editors
*To the best of Vodafone’s knowledge, no other publicly known 5G-enabled technology has previously demonstrated returning a tennis serve from Wimbledon within less than one second of it being captured on the BBC broadcast feed.
**Dependent on the official broadcast feed. Accounting for standard delay in official broadcast feeds, the 5G+ Serve releases the ball within a second of it leaving the players’ racket on court at Wimbledon. Delays to the official broadcast feed may extend the time between the athlete’s serve and the robotic arm’s serve.
***For the purposes of this activation, a network slice was configured on the Vodafone 5G Standalone network to guarantee 32 Mbps Downlink and 8 Mbps Uplink.
Vodafone’s 5G+ Serve
The 5G+ Serve is a 4m-long robot arm with an integrated ball machine, installed on a 10m track that runs the length of the baseline. The length and manoeuvrability of the robot and track allows it to move into the same court position as the player at Wimbledon.
The players’ serve is captured locally by the official broadcast feed. The broadcast is then streamed over a Vodafone 5G+ Local Network Slice, where telemetry is gathered using pose estimation, object tracking and optical character recognition.
This allows the 5G+ Serve to replicate the exact telemetry captured by the official broadcast feed and release the ball less than a second after it leaves the players’ racket on court.
The experience is available on court 13-15, Wimbledon Park Tennis Courts, SW19 7HR. It is free to participate.
Vodafone’s 5G+
5G+ is Vodafone’s next generation 5G Standalone (5G SA) technology.
With 5G+, customers can enjoy quality when it matters – they’ll experience faster speeds and instant connection that’s reliable in busy places. It’s powered by our new 5G core network, which is referred to as ‘5G Standalone’ (5G SA) in the industry. 5G SA is available on eligible plans.
Vodafone’s 5G+ is the UK’s Fastest 5G+, with superior speeds and capacity compared to other major network providers. CrowdSource testing between January 2026 (W1) and June 2026 (W24), sourced by Accenture, compared 5G+ speeds on major network providers, and found that Vodafone had 2.6x faster speeds than EE, and 1.80x faster speeds than O2.
This is because Vodafone’s 5G SA infrastructure is optimised for improved performance, using a larger proportion of higher-frequency spectrum that has higher capacity and faster speeds than other major networks who rely on lower-frequency spectrum. Vodafone’s 5G SA network uses a split of frequencies that is optimised for device capabilities to achieve higher speed versus other major networks.
Vodafone’s 5G+ Local Slicing
5G+ Local Slicing delivers a private high-performance network lane built around the needs of business and public sector customers. Operating on VodafoneThree’s 5G Standalone network, 5G+ Local Slicing brings guaranteed performance across a defined site or local area up to 5km2.
Network slicing allows the creation of different virtual networks on the public infrastructure, each dedicated to a particular service, ensuring performance is not impacted by other users’ demands.
Crucially, the performance capabilities of each slice can be customised to different use cases, combining low latency and high bandwidth to unlock endless opportunities.
Vodafone’s 5G at Wimbledon
VodafoneThree has deployed C-band spectrum on sites across the UK, including Wimbledon. C-band spectrum refers to mid‑band spectrum around 3.4-3.8 GHz. It provides a strong balance between coverage and capacity. Increased capacity means more reliable connectivity in places like offices, shopping centres and transport hubs, and better performance when the network is busiest, like in town centres and stadiums.
