Member Article

BT to trial 5G projects as part of King’s College London collaboration

With the uptake and roll-out of 5G services in the UK set to ramp up in the next couple of years, telecoms companies are already trying to get a jump on their rivals with pioneering 5G projects of their own.

Today (Friday) there was confirmation that telecoms infrastructure company Arqiva was teaming up with Samsung to trial 5G points in central London today and now BT is following suit with a collaborative project of its own.

The UK telecoms giant has said it has entered into a multi-year collaboration agreement with Ericsson and King’s College London to research and develop projects centered around real world commercial uses for the next generation mobile technology, with a particular focus on critical industries such as the medical sector.

Based out of BT’s Proof of Concept Center in Ipswich, which Ericsson helped BT to build, the trio will look at innovations such as low latency communication and network slicing in contexts including communications technology, robotics and haptic control.

Howard Watson, CEO, BT Technology, service & operations, and BT group CIO, commented: “The initial focus of the collaboration is on Proof of Concept solutions and trials of services needing both high availability and low latency - both key features of the forthcoming 5G technology.”

“In 2016, BT bought EE, the United Kingdom’s leading 4G network provider. Together, we have the opportunity to build on our existing infrastructure to create a truly converged fixed and mobile network.

“We look forward to working with Ericsson and Kings College London as we examine the possibilities of 5G, and what it can deliver in terms of flexibility, scalability and the high bandwidths that our customers will require in the future.”