O2 Urge Government to Invest in 5G

The government should offer greater access to properties to encourage more operators to invest in 5G infrastructure, O2 has said.

15:27 05 March 2018

O2 CEO Mark Evans is urging the government to provide more support and greater access to properties in order to encourage more operators to invest in infrastructures needed to deploy 5G technology.

 

Speaking at the O2 Arena to announce the operator’s Q4 and full financial year results, Evans said that such move would greatly benefit consumers and UK businesses.

 

A recent study commissioned by the firm found that 5G will boost the economy by £10bilion annually by 2026 and £7billion a year after five years.

 

Evans said: “The £7 billion coming into the economy after 5-6 years dwarfs any short term gain from charging operators rental space for equipment.

 

O2 chief operating officer Derek McManus added: “Just building a 5G capable network is not going to drive adoption, it’s that collaboration between government, operators regulators to make it available so you can roll it out and understanding the use cases will drive real adoption”.

 

O2 has also confirmed that it is transforming the O2 Arena into a 5G test bed this coming June. Installation will begin in March using multi-access edge computing from Nokia.