VGC Construction is providing bases and cable routes for the ground-breaking 5G Innovation Centre at the University of Surrey, which aims to become the world’s premiere 5G research centre.
Due to open in autumn 2015, the new £70 million dedicated 5G Innovation Centre on the University’s Stag Hill campus will be home to over 150 researchers and 100 PhD students.
AWTG has contracted VGC Construction to provide the fibre optic cabling infrastructure to connect the pico, macro and aggregation points back to the 5G Innovation Centre building. VGC’s contract will provide a network of 5G mobile pico cell masts which will be mounted on poles and on roofs and sides of University of Surrey buildings. They will enable testing of the various 5G systems under real world conditions.
As more and more people use smartphones and other devices, and new applications such as driverless cars and advanced gaming need faster network connections, the demand for mobile data is increasing hugely. At the same time, users want reduced costs, and there is also a need to reduce energy consumption. 5G will deliver unprecedented data speeds, promising mobile broadband ranging between 1 gigabit and 10 gigabits per second.
“We are delighted to be involved in this high-profile scheme to facilitate the development of the next generation of mobile telephones,” said Will Dalton, VGC Group contracts manager. “VGC’s experience in delivering complex and sensitive projects stands us in good stead when working to exact specifications for this important infrastructure.”
The 5GIC is the world’s first dedicated 5G centre and an international hub for telecommunication research and innovation. It will have unique large scale 5G experimental facilities and specialised laboratories for end to end network testing. The 5G Innovation Centre aims to be the world’s leading independent facility for researching and trialling 5G, and will feature an open, end-to-end 5G test bed, where emerging technologies will be tested in a real-world environment.
Upon completion, the test bed is expected to deliver a live 5G infrastructure network covering the whole of the University of Surrey campus, providing nearly 17,000 students and staff with the latest communications technology. The plan is to demonstrate 5G technologies before 2018.
Watch a video about the 5G Innovation Centre hosted by Telecom TV.
