West Midlands 5G spoke recently at our Midlands Development Conference – and we’ve been speaking to them about the potential of 5G, how it’ll act as a catalyst for development and the opportunities it presents to the region:

Q. How will the advent of 5G have a transformative impact on Britain and the West Midlands in particular?

5G is the next generation of mobile network. Just as 4G offered a huge step forward from its 3G predecessor, 5G is changing the way we use devices, connectivity and data by opening up a world of exciting possibilities across business, transport, healthcare, manufacturing, to name a few and will impact our day to day lives.   As more and more devices become connected 5G will be the foundation for realising the full potential of the Internet of Things (IoT), not only enabling efficiencies and driving industrial productivity but really spurring innovation and new ways of working across all sectors.

If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us one thing, it’s that mobile and broadband connectivity is now more important than ever to the way we live and work.  No matter how we end up emerging from this crisis, the trend of an increased demand for digital connectivity will only continue.  5G networks will prove fundamental to fulfilling the potential of digital connectivity, as we live in an ‘always on’ more connected world water, power, gas are now joined by connectivity as the new 4th utility. [emaillocker id=”71749″]

West Midlands 5G (WM5G) was established as part of the UK government’s 5G Testbeds and Trials Programme led by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). WM5G’s mission is to accelerate the deployment of 5G networks and to test, prove and scale new 5G services across the West Midlands.

The overall purpose of the testbed is to trial developing technologies designed for the delivery of both public and commercial services, with an end goal of supporting economic development by stimulating the 5G ecosystem.

As a result of the West Midlands being at the forefront of 5G, thousands more citizens and organisations will have access to 4G & 5G connectivity, the growth of new tech sectors through our 5G Innovation Hubs will accelerate and transform productivity in areas such as Transport, Health and social care and Manufacturing.

Q. How is the West Midlands distinguishing itself as a leader in the 5G sector?

Leadership in this area is critical to UK plc and the West Midlands and the goal is to ensure that the region takes a leadership position in key digital trends, more important than ever to power economic and social recovery.

The region is already one of the 1st areas in the world to launch 5G.    Furthermore, the West Midlands and Birmingham – which have reaped the rewards of West Midlands 5G’s Infrastructure Acceleration programme – have been ranked highest in a new 5G mobile coverage study by independent telecoms advisory company umlaut.  The study analysed 5G coverage across the UK’s Combined Authority areas and placed the West Midlands first for 5G coverage, whilst Birmingham also ranked highest for 5G coverage among the top six cities in England and Scotland.

The news further reinforces the digital strength of the West Midlands as it establishes itself as Europe’s number one location for 5G technology and innovation.

Q. What opportunities does developing 5G infrastructure pose for the construction sector?

WM5G is committed to accelerate innovation and skills development across a broad range of sectors through the three 5G Innovation Hubs that we’ve launched in Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton with O2, Deloitte, Wayra and the Digital Catapult. These 5G Hubs – called 5prinG – are the UK’s first 5G innovation centres, which offer businesses and public sector organisations alike dedicated facilities to experience 5G, work out what benefits it could deliver and then work with start-ups and entrepreneurs to develop new 5G services. We’ve already started to run the first online engagements and we are focussing these facilities on supporting digital innovation in construction as well as other areas such as manufacturing, transport, retail, leisure.

Its mission is to engage more than 2,000 businesses, firmly putting the West Midlands on the map as leaders in 5G innovation.

5prinG has already held a three-day Engage event on the theme of construction, taking participants through the fundamentals of 5G for construction with expert panellists and case study workshops. The events are designed to help organisations through the process of spotting 5G enabled opportunities.  The panel brought together top 5G experts in construction to explore the value in 5G and what trials have been carried out, the learnings that have been achieved as well as what needs to happen to enable an autonomous and connected future in construction.

Developers, constructions companies and real estate businesses are becoming increasingly aware that 5G offers them a significant number of advantages including how they plan and organise buildings with the large-scale, real-time data that the Internet of Things will generate. It will mean big changes in building utilisation, and new more dynamic property management and maintenance.   WM5G are keen to encourage these types of organisations to get involved with 5prinG.

Landlords and developers across the region need to keep thinking of 5G facilitation as normal business planning. Embracing the technology gives developers a competitive advantage – particularly those in the commercial space, where 5G is expected to have its biggest impact.

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