How 5G will be delivered – and how it can transform daily life
Health and transport initiatives are at the top of the list of 5G opportunities that will be tested in the West Midlands after the Government chose Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton to be the place to do a large-scale trial of the communications technology.
The pilot programme will focus on large priority zones which cover around 1.5m people in an area roughly following the M6 from Wolverhampton to Coventry, but that will cover two-fifths of the mayoral footprint.
The 5G test bed will be delivered by a new organisation called the West Midlands Digital Network Alliance (WM DNA), which will be responsible to the West Midlands Combined Authority.
Andy Street
“From monitoring the health of babies and the elderly, to the way out people are linked to the economy of the future, the way companies do business, the way we deliver public services, the experience of travellers on public transport and the way we deliver City of Culture and the Commonwealth Games – everything can be made better thanks to the power of this technology.”
The initial plans outline transformational approaches to medical and transport services.
They include hospital outpatient appointments and emergency consultations carried out by video, increasing convenience and allowing discussions and advice to be reviewed, and paramedics using video to get advice from clinical specialists while at the scene of an incident.
5G technology could be utilised by driverless cars – Jaguar Land Rover will work with the West Midlands Combined Authority to rigourously test the potential – and on public transport, potentially using artificial intelligence and CCTV to create “intelligent cameras” that can alert police to anti-social behaviour.
A 5G network depends on small antennae that can be fixed to buildings and street lights, rather than large mobile phone masts.
This project will utilise property owned by the public sector to create a shared asset that can be open to every company and organisation to use.
Although the West Midlands’ 5G test bed project is a major milestone, it is actually the third step in the Government’s approach to encourage the development of 5G technology.
The first phase saw universities supported to develop core 5G technologies. Then earlier this year six technical test beds were funded around the country, including a project in Worcestershire.
A £4.8m grant was provided for a consortium including Worcestershire’s local enterprise partnership and county council, Worcester Bosch and Yamazaki Mazak.
It is focusing on ways to increase industrial productivity through preventative and assisted maintenance using robotics, big data analytics and augmented reality over 5G.
Other projects included a smart tourism project in Bath and Bristol and rural schemes to bring connectivity to isolated parts of the North and Scotland.
