Goodbye UK5G, Hello UKTIN

Started in 2017, UK5G is coming to the end of its five year mission to explore new technologies, seek out new solutions, and boldly grow the 5G ecosystem.

ALL GOOD THINGS must come to an end, and so I find myself writing my last article for Innovation Briefing as the Head of UK5G.As the 5G Testbeds & Trials programme has concluded there has been much to reflect on over the past six months, not least the scale of collective achievement.

Looking back over the five years since UK5G’s inception, I am proud that we have been able to play an important role in the success of the DCMS’s 5G adoption agenda. Running for 19 quarters, we have seen continuous quarter-on-quarter growth of our network, to today when we have more than 5,000 registered users from more than 1,900 organisations and visitors to our website from not just the UK but Europe, North America, China and India.

During this time we have supported the DCMS with multiple competitions: from Rural Connected Communities to 5G Create, FRANC, DCIA, Fibre in Water and, most recently, Future Open Networks Research Challenge and the UK/Republic of Korea Open RAN R&D Collaboration.

And, of course, we have seen the programme grow in terms of projects –today we have more than 100 listed on UK5G – organisations and individuals involved across the projects, the DCMS and also the UK5G team.

Of course, numbers can only ever tell part of the story and, as ever, it’s the people that help to make things happen.The one thing that strikes me as I reflect back is the sense of cohesion, drive and ambition of all those who have been involved in Testbeds & Trials; from navigating a global pandemic to chip shortages, and that’s before you factor in the more mundane challenges associated with innovation!Yet the scale of accomplishment is immense: From transforming construction sites to protecting heritage sties, broadcasting sports events live over 5G and achieving asset tracking in ports down to centimetre- level accuracy. From the start it was clear that the expectation for 5GTT was great, but it is the scale of achievement that will really stick with me.

It is always hard to identify one highlight, but for me it would have to be the UK’s 5G Showcase event that UK5G hosted in Birmingham in March. The buzz of more than 600 people in one place showcasing what had been achieved, reflecting on the lessons learnt and, most importantly, highlighting what needs to happen next, was a real testament to the programme as a whole. In a post-Covid world there was a lot of excitement about people just being together in the physical realm but there was also something more than that: a feeling that every individual was part of something far bigger than use cases or projects – that the work being done had wider importance for the UK’s economy and society.

As the policy focus turns now from 5G adoption to telecom supply chain diversification, UK5G retires and a new innovation network – UKTIN – will officially start on 1st October. This follows the change from the 5G Testbeds & Trials programme to the Future Networks Programme with a broader remit to include communications technologies outside 5G.

While UKTIN will look to build on the success and learnings of UK5G, it is a very different network with a different focus.

The intention is to assist UK telecoms into a growing, resilient, secure and globally significant sector. The UK has incredible capabilities, but the telecoms ecosystem is seen to be fragmented.UKTIN aims to address this, helping to coalesce and expand the UK’s telecoms ecosystem, collaboratively developing future UK capabilities and proactively engaging on an international stage. UKTIN will be delivered by a new consortium: Digital Catapult, CW (Cambridge Wireless), the University of Bristol and WM5G.

In reality, the adoption and diversification agendas are intertwined; the consultations we have run with vertical sectors over the past few months have shown us that costs of deploying 5G networks need to be affordable for SMEs in particular. Diversification offers the promise of more choice and with a more competitive market should come greater affordability.

While the focus moving forward, therefore, is on supporting the UK government’s telecoms supply chain diversification agenda, the outputs and achievements should directly feed into and facilitate ongoing adoption.

I can’t write this without saying a big thank-you to all the UK5G team, past and present, who have worked so hard over the past few years, along with the dedicated DCMS officials who have supported us along the way. I also want to say thank you to the UK5G Advisory Board and the various members of the UK5G Working Groups. Their pro-bono contributions have been immense. Finally, I’d like to extend a very special thank-you to Ros Singleton, who has chaired the UK5G Advisory Board throughout the period. She has been a constant source of wise counsel and has always kept us focused.

UK5G has been quite the journey and I can’t wait to see what UKTIN will achieve. The ambition is already there and I have no doubt the realisation will be equally impressive.

Robert Driver Head of UK5G