The UK’s 5G Showcase

Eastside Rooms in Birmingham hosted The UK’s 5G Showcase 2022 which showed the best of British technology. It brought together those working on the DCMS funded projects, along with the broader world of telecommunications. Lauren Kelly reports.

THE UK’S 5G SHOWCASE 2022 was a joyous culmination of the collective efforts of over 50 projects, 200 organisations and numerous locations across the United Kingdom and countless individuals across all sectors. Together they have explored ways in which 5G can be harnessed to unlock benefits, ranging from supporting people who would otherwise be hospitalised to stay longer in their homes, to driving productivity and reducing waste. The event was sold out with a waiting list for tickets and some of the talks were standing room only.

The showcase came at a time when the emphasis of DCMS projects is moving from applications for the technology to building a reliant British supply chain. The UK has a number of technical Open RAN projects that are set to push the boundaries of architectures, developing testing capabilities across multiple modules, and exploring the role of AI and machine learning.

A diverse collection of speakers from around the industry provided an unparalleled opportunity for attendees to hear directly from those on the 5G frontline. A series of panels celebrated and explored the significant value opportunities 5G brings across a range of sectors and both rural and urban areas; this included key findings and insights shared from across the UK’s 5G ecosystem.

Topics covered also took in the wider context of 5G and 6G, and the next steps in the telecommunications market. Industry leaders discussed insights on the key enablers and stimuli required to achieve significant market growth of services while experts considered the main research areas for nextgeneration wireless, including network diversification and convergence, open architectures and standards, softwarisation and sustainability, and a focus on delivering social value. Speakers also offered valuable perspectives on the main investable opportunities in 5G services, in addition to the technology enablers that can be

The slick organisation by UK5G’s lead partner Cambridge Wireless saw the Testbeds and Trials participants get together in a way that had been impossible through lockdown. Many of the teams had never all been together before, leading to comments on how much taller or shorter than expected many were.

Some companies from outside the programme joined the gathering to pitch their wares to participants. The human networking ran from dawn to well after dusk. Over the awards dinner Karl Yu, from WNC took the opportunity to explain to Telet’s Mollie Ford how his company’s small cells provide capacity in underserved environments both in rural locations and in major cities.

Robert Franks, Managing Director of WM5G, suggested: “There are two different markets, large organisations with experience and smaller companies who need more packaged insights. We have been trying to ensemble a roadmap. There’s not a silver-bullet use case but there are clusters that complement others brilliantly. For example, we believe that there are five that fit within manufacturing for the majority: an approach where you try to align is much more achievable than a case-by-case basis. We should make sure to publicise the details and benefits, making them available to all.”

Reflecting on the 5GTT Programme, Jessica Ellis, DCMS, emphasised the importance of collaboration., in particular for the Digital Connectivity Infrastructure Accelerator (DCIA)

Consortia led by eight local authorities who have each won up to £500,000 to develop digital asset management tools that will accelerate the roll-out of 5G and 4G services.

The platforms being used, will help telecom companies get easier access to public buildings and street lights, bus shelters and traffic lights. In total, 44 English and Scottish council areas are beneficiaries of the initiative. Ellis explained that “Building relationships is critical in deployment.” harnessed to unlock economic growth and enhance societal benefit.

James Body of Telet, which leads the MONeH consortium explained the benefits of a Multi-Operator Neutral Host deployment to Minister of State for Media, Data and Digital Infrastructure Julia Lopez MP. She took a keen interest in how it can be used to fill in rural notspots in locations where it is important to be sympathetic to the local environment but where there is a need to provide connectivity when the major mobile networks find it uneconomic to deploy traditional infrastructure.

By bringing the full programme together with an influential audience, UK5G explored the commercialisation opportunities for companies and organisations involved in the programme—significantly moving the conversation from innovation and R&D to reallife business cases. Attendees included notable senior stakeholders from the investment community, government, industry and the public sector, from the UK and across the globe.

In a packed session, the showcase provided insights into the green challenge for mobile networks and the role of wireless services in combatting the climate crisis, examining the arising from the UK 5G trials— while considering specific approaches to lower the RAN carbon budget and debating whether mobile networks are part of the problem, solution, or both.

Sir Tim Smit, Eden Project, said: “ considering networks Chairman of the “We are living at the dawn of a revolution now. We have millions of people visiting Eden and we have projects in China, Colombia and soon, New Zealand. The ability to access real biomes around the world is bringing young people together. Communication and access to information are obviously very important but for me, we are on the brink of the most important revolution since the enlightenment (probably even older than that!)” He continued that he hoped we were all brave enough to use communications “as a power to observe and learn that will enable us to see how we can work with the natural world. We need to stop thinking of the world in human terms and remember that we are a part of ecology.” we part included: very important); net-zero; private networks and neutral host spaces, with emphasis on the vertical sectors. Closing the showcase, Ros Singleton expressed her thanks to all of the chairs, speakers and exhibitors “who have put so much effort into this”. international programme; its in

“The importance of the international aspect and leveraging existing projects are my takeaways. The evolution of communications is not about counting the G’s,” She cited the improved power efficiency of the newer technologies as a good reason for the sunsetting of 2G and 3G. Improved bandwidth of 4G and some specific features of 5G mean that higher data rates can be achieved by base stations which consume less electrical power.

Panellists concluded the two-day conference by offering advice about what the UK should be focusing on. Answers included: the strengths of its ecosystem (for example, the creative industries and AI; an international programme; its excellent academia - there are strong thinkers in the UK and the next generation is going to be

Singleton also looked to the future saying “It’s exciting to hear about the government’s investment in UKTIN, SONIC and FRANC. If we want to be able to develop independence and true diversification, we want to be able to manage the networks.” Singleton concluded: “Overall, what’s come across to me within the last two days is the feelings of collaboration, intent and purpose. We need to go boldly where no person has gone before and try to reuse what we have learned.”