New £65 million package for 5G trials
The DCMS has announced the winners of £35m funding to help accelerate 5G’s adoption by businesses in the UK.
The government has also launched a £30m 5G open competition.
- Winners of £35 million funding pot to help Britain unlock potential of 5G announced
- Comes as new £30 million 5G competition for sectors launched
- Part of Government’s continued commitment to level up infrastructure across the UK
Rural areas will benefit from a series of government-funded trials to help them seize the potential of modern technology, the Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden announced today.
Nine projects across the country will receive a share of £35 million from our rural and industrial 5G competitions, and a new £30 million open competition – 5G Create – will look at how 5G can create new opportunities in industries including film, TV and video games, logistics and tourism.
Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire will see cutting-edge apps transform the visitor experience, with Robin Hood telling the history of the medieval forest via virtual and augmented reality on 5G networks. New robotic environmental management will also be tested alongside live monitoring of the health of Sherwood Forest to preserve the site for future generations.
Funding will also go to 5G trials in air and sea search and rescue in Dorset to help save lives using terrestrial and satellite connectivity. This project will also trial 5G connectivity for remote farms to track crop growth, monitor livestock and reduce water pollution using 5G.
These new trials will help spread the benefits of technology across the country and allow the UK to grasp an early advantage by using the new applications 5G networks can enable.
This forms part of our £200 million investment in testbeds and trials across the UK to explore new ways that 5G can boost business growth and productivity, improve the lives of people in rural areas and maximise the productivity benefits of new technologies. Our innovative trials will also support the Government‚Äôs ambition to diversify the supply chain for digital infrastructure in the UK, a key recommendation from the Supply Chain Review.
“We are determined to make the UK a world-leader in 5G but that doesn’t just mean giving people faster mobile phone connections. Today we’re announcing new funding to seize the new opportunities modern technology will offer us. This includes seeing how it could create new jobs in the countryside, make businesses more productive and unleash even more ideas in our cutting-edge creative industries.”
“This project will be front and centre of retelling the story of Robin Hood to future generations. It will be situated in the ancient royal forest of Sherwood, which has been wooded since the end of the last Glacial Period. There is no better opportunity to trial 5G in a forest setting anywhere else in the UK – not just for the area’s geography, but for its rich and fascinating history. I see this project as the start of a journey that will truly see Nottinghamshire on the regional, national and international tourism and environment management maps; as well as providing us with the opportunity to build the digital skills and opportunities of our residents and businesses.”
Councillor Kay Cutts, leader of Nottinghamshire County Council
“This is a unique opportunity for the UK to become a world-leader exploiting the technological innovation that 5G can offer by developing and using innovative technology for destination branding for the visitor economy, preserving the wellbeing of the environment, and creating a scalable and sustainable commercial grade experimental network; a world first.”
Research lead professor Mohammad Patwary, from Birmingham City University
5G has speeds up to ten times faster than 4G and will greatly increase mobile capacity across the UK, meaning more people will be able to get online and find and download the content they want, without slowdown.
But 5G is about more than a speedier internet connection. It uses technology that is far more advanced than that of our current mobile networks, so as time goes on it could transform the way we interact with critical services – from energy and water, to transport and healthcare.
It will also drive the adoption of new technologies such as driverless cars, remote healthcare and the ‘smart’ devices we increasingly use in our homes and at work.
The £65 million package announced today includes:
- £30 million for the Rural Connected Communities (RCC) competition for seven 5G research and development projects across the UK. This includes five in England, one in Wales and one in Scotland with plans to expand into Northern Ireland. Test sites will be set up in Yorkshire , Gwent, Monmouthshire, Orkney, Wiltshire, Nottinghamshire, Dorset, Shropshire and Worcestershire.
- More than £5 million of funding will be awarded to two industrial projects, led by Ford Motor Company and Zeetta Networks, to test the benefits of using 5G to boost productivity in the manufacturing sector.
- A new £30 million open competition – 5G Create – has been launched. This is an open competition aiming to attract bids from a variety of industries where the UK has a competitive advantage, encouraging dynamic business models and opening up new opportunities and markets. This includes our creative industries such as film, TV and video games, but also our rich variety of technology businesses in diverse sectors such as energy, water, health and social care, logistics and more.
“The Creative Industries Council is delighted that DCMS is launching 5G Create. We have been advocating a funded competition along these lines, as an exciting opportunity for UK creative companies to develop innovative products and services using this transformational technology. 5G offers innovative opportunities right across the sector from film and tv, to games, to music, fashion and advertising. We hope that start-ups and well-established companies alike will bid for the available funds.”
Tim Davie, Co-Chair of the Creative Industries Council and CEO of BBC Studios
UK5G are delighted with the announcement of new government funding for 5G rural and industrial projects, and that the awards are to consortia across such a range of sectors and geographies. These nine new projects build upon the success of the previous 5G trials and, by testing applications and deployment models, will accelerate the adoption of these important technologies. UK5G is looking forward to supporting these important projects and communicating their benefits and lessons learned across the network. It is also hugely exciting to see the upcoming 5G Create competition taking shape. UK5G will be supporting DCMS workshops throughout the country to get the message out about this competition, encouraging the formation of new consortia to validate yet more use cases.
Robert Driver, Head of UK5G
For more information on the projects, click here.
The new 5G Create competition will open in early March and run until the end of June. More details will come shortly.