£16m 5G Hub to link three universities’ test beds

Three sites in the UK will be linked up via 5G test beds thanks to £16m in investment from the Government.

The funding, announced by Matt Hancock, the minister of state for digital, on 7 July, will bring three UK universities together for the development of end-to-end 5G system trials, which will be conducted in "wide real environment areas" and with combinations of different frequencies. The trials will be expanded in 2018 to cover additional use cases such as connected cars, car to car, VR/AR and remote surgery.

The investment will fund technological developments at each of the three universities, linking all three sites through design and research, and will see all three work in partnership to keep the UK at the forefront of 5G technology development.

Bristol University will deploy 5G capability in the extensive Smart City and Smart Campus test beds in the city, targeting full 5G and fibre infrastructure convergence. Bristol will also contribute to the key Software Defined Network technologies for end-to-end 5G service delivery. Public demonstrators will be the focus of delivery, targeting media, gaming and transport applications.