Universities set to test ultra-fast 5G tech

Bristol University, King’s College London and the University of Surrey are thought to be among the institutions vying to be ‘test beds’ for the development of new 5G technology.

As part of its Industrial Strategy, the government has announced investment of £1 billion in digital projects to help get the UK up to speed when it comes to connectivity - it sits in a lowly 54th place in the global league table of 4G connectivity.

BBC reporter Robin Markwell visited the Smart Internet Lab at the University of Bristol recently, looking at their design of a small box that emits 5G, delivering very fast, extremely reliable connectivity.

Recent research by Ofcom suggested 20 per cent of homes in urban areas have poor 4G phone signal - in rural areas, it’s about 80 per cent.

Lab director Professor Dimitra Simeonidou told the BBC: “5G is a revolution. It's not just about having a faster connection in our mobile phones - it's also about creating a seamless connectivity with the network and it's about having complete reliability."

"Often in your home you have great connectivity. Your teenagers might be on YouTube while you're watching programmes streamed on iPlayer. Then you get into your car and you don't even get a 3G service. 5G will stop all of this."

5G will be much, much faster than previous generations of mobile networks. It’s thought that a full HD movie will be able to be downloaded in under 10 seconds, compared with a similar number of minutes over 4G.

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