The UK’s Digital Secretary, Jeremy Wright, has announced that £40 million is to be invested in 5G testbed and trial projects across UK industry as part of Government plans to improve mobile connectivity.
The funding was announced at the 5G World Conference as part of London Tech Week. The recent launch of 5G in the UK puts the country ahead of much of Europe.
Paul Gowans, the Wireless Strategy Director at VIAVI Solutions comments: “The British government sees the importance of 5G mobile connectivity and the expansive opportunities it brings to many verticals. And testing is at the heart of ensuring the new 5G network will deliver on in its promises.”
Gowans continues: “Pre-deployment testing, exercising the network, emulating users and validating services before they go live in test bed labs provides the confidence for a robust, high quality network when it rolls out to consumers and businesses. 5G is poised to boost the country’s economy, bringing communities together and propelling industries such as automotive, health and transport ”
5G has already garnered global attention and is likely to grow – both on the consumer and telecoms sides – more rapidly than any other G technology in the mobile era.
According to a global study by Ericsson, early momentum and enthusiasm for 5G has led it to forecast an extra 400 million enhanced mobile broadband subscriptions globally by the end of 2024.
In its June 2019 edition of the Ericsson Mobility Report, the company forecasts 1.9 billion 5G subscriptions – up from 1.5 billion forecasted in the November 2018 edition – an increase of almost 27 percent.
Other forecasts have also increased notably as a result of the rapid 5G uptake. 5G coverage is forecast to reach 45 percent of the world’s population by end of 2024. This could surge to 65 percent, as spectrum sharing technology enables 5G deployments on LTE frequency bands.
