Oxfordshire County Council has picked Vodafone to build and manage a 5G Standalone (5G SA) mobile private network (MPN) based at Harwell Science and Innovation Campus.
This network is designed to unlock the full capabilities of IoT devices through features such as greater real-time control of production and handover of Internet protocol traffic during video and voice calls.
In doing so, on-site organisations will be better equipped to tackle pressing challenges across advanced manufacturing, transport and logistics, energy and healthcare, including the Eurpoean Space Agency, which chose Vodafone to work as part of a consortium to create a 5G/6G hub on Harwell Campus in 2023.
Being designed to be private and secure, the 5G network allows these companies to tap into specialised custom services that would not be feasible on a public network, such as asset tracking, drone detection, machine-to-machine connectivity, condition monitoring and augmented and virtual reality applications.
The decision has been made on behalf of England’s Connected Heartland (ECH). As part of the UK Government’s 5G Innovation Region programme, ECH brings together five local authorities – Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Central Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire – to speed up the adoption of advanced wireless technology.
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