5G Accelerator Backed by West Midlands Council

West Midlands councils to support 5G schemes that address challenges in health and social care, public services, public safety and social and events.

06:42 14 May 2021

A group of local authorities in the West Midlands have confirmed support to a 5G programme designed to develop solutions to deal with challenges around public services, health and social care, public safety and social and events. 

 

The councils will provide their support to start-ups that were chosen in the development of their proposed solutions. Interested firms that wish to take part in the scheme will be given the opportunity to present their proposed solutions using 5G to leverage technologies that will include the internet of things (IoT), augmented and virtual reality, edge computing and artificial intelligence. 

 

The firms will be granted access to a private 5G network at the University of Wolverhompton Science Park and will be mentored by consortium members. They will also be able to take advantage of start-up supporter Wayra UK's network of investors and business development services. 

 

Raj Mack, head of business engagement (information, technology and digital services) at Birmingham City Council, said: “Our collaboration with 5PRING will give all of the participating local authorities in the West Midlands the opportunity to work closely with small business and start-ups to support and leverage 5G innovation.

 

“With this collaboration, we are looking to foster digitalisation of an array of services. 5PRING will allow us to identify and trial ground breaking solutions in a real testbed environment, using technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality and IoT systems to support the creation of smart cities.”