Good afternoon,
It feels strange not being in and amongst the hustle and bustle of Mobile World Congress this week - both physically and digitally. The GSMA should be congratulated for making the right decision in the light of the increasingly serious coronavirus risk. While certainly not replacing the countless face to face meetings and encounters that would have happened at Barcelona, the sheer quantity of on-line content this week just illustrates how many industry announcements are saved up for late February. Looking forward to MWC 2021!
Here at UK5G HQ, there's been plenty of activity taking place relating to the recent exciting announcements of Government funding
into an additional tranche of testbed and trial projects:
5G Create is a new £30 million open call competition, launched last week.
The government is hoping to attract bids from a variety of industries where the UK has a competitive advantage, encouraging dynamic business models and opening up new opportunities and markets. This includes the creative industries but also the rich variety of technology businesses in such sectors as energy, water, health and social care and logistics.
UK5G are working alongside the DCMS to deliver a number of competition briefing events across the UK, taking place on the following dates:
· 09/03 Bristol
· 12/03 Glasgow
· 16/03 Salford
· 31/03 Belfast
· 11/05 London
Registration for all these events are open now. If you are thinking of
bidding and need a consortia partner UK5G will be able to help.
DCMS are holding a small consultation workshop next week on 03/03 in London to help determine the final details for 5G Create. You can register for the workshop here. They will subsequently make available all the detailed documentation to support and guide potential bidders. We’ll publish as soon as we have it.
New Project winners
The new 7 x Rural Connected Communities
and 2 x Industrial 5G project winners are listed below. Over the next couple of weeks we'll be engaging with the new project teams, and updates will be shared with you via these fortnightly emails. Once the projects are listed online you can 'follow this project' for further updates.
The 5G Innovation Briefing Magazine will include updates and commentary on the trial activity; the next issue is due to be published around May. If you like more info regarding editorial
and/or advertising opportunities, please reach out to Roger Hinkson.
Hopefully you saw the 5G Special which was distributed in The Times newspaper last week - digital (pdf) version can be accessed on our resources section. We continue to provide commentary and support the national media on the creation of future 5G reports - the next special will be distributed via The Guardian and more information will be provided in a future issue of the newsletter. Let us know if you want to participate.
Finally, it is good to see the published results from Ofcom of electromagnetic field (EMF) measurements near 5G mobile base stations <add link>. Emissions in all cases were a tiny fraction of the maximum levels set out by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). Hopefully this will serve to allay some of the 5G fears which have been developing in some areas of the country.