5G Innovation Centre Officially Opens at the University of Surrey

5GIC DayThe University of Surrey has opened its 5G Innovation Centre (5GIC). The facility houses over 170 researchers and has attracted over £70m of investment, including £12m from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). It is the world’s largest academic research centre dedicated to next generation mobile and wireless connectivity.

The Centre brings together leading academic expertise and major industry partners to define and develop a global 5G network that has the potential to radically change lives across the world. Through its work, they have already developed a technology that enables speeds of one terabit per second (Tbps) – more than 1,000 times faster than the highest 4G speed, and filed over 15 patents.

“While we have already achieved record-breaking speeds, 5G is not only about delivering faster mobile internet,” said 5GIC director, Professor Rahim Tafazolli. “It is a transformative set of technologies that will radically change our private and professional lives by enabling innovative applications and services, such as remote healthcare, wireless robots, driverless cars and connected homes and cities, removing boundaries between the real and cyber worlds.

“The true impact of 5G will come from the innovative applications the new network will enable, some of which are yet to be realised. The opening of the Centre marks an important step in allowing those from across the globe to work with us in developing the new network and for partners, other universities and industry to test out their new applications in a real world setting, before they are brought to market.”

Jo Johnson, Minister for Universities and Science, said: “The development of 5G presents a significant economic opportunity and this world-leading centre will position the UK at the forefront of research into the next generation of communications technology. The Government wants Britain to be the best place in Europe to innovate and we are committed to supporting collaborations like this one to ensure pioneering research continues to improve people’s lives.”

Opening alongside the Centre is a testbed facility that provides researchers with a fully-functioning advanced 4G network. Over time, it will be upgraded to include fully-fledged 5G technologies and large scale Internet of Things. By 2018, the testbed will be able to deliver 10Gbs/per cell, 10 times faster than the highest speed available over 4G.

Academic and industry partners involved in the 5GIC include  EE, Huawei, O2, Vodafone, HEFCE, Enterprise M3, TEOCO Corporation, BBC, BT, Cobham, Anite, Ascom, Catapult Digital, Fujitsu, Rohde & Schwarz, Samsung, Roke, McLaren Applied Technologies, Ofcom, Imagination Technologies, ITRI, MYCOM OSI, Three and Ordnance Survey.