Government's new new Wireless Infrastructure Strategy promises to deliver standalone 5G to all populated areas in the UK by 2030.
The strategy sees £40 million invested to drive take up of 5G-enabled services for businesses and the public sector. This funding will establish eight to 10 5G Innovation Regions across the UK.
A further £100m will be spent on a 6G strategy, to deliver a new future telecoms mission and ensure the UK sets the agenda for this new technology. A key element of this will be a series of Future Telecoms Research Hubs.
Finally, an £8m fund is being set up to provide capital grants to promote new satellite connectivity to the most remote 35,000 premises.
Lopez says: “Extraordinary progress is being made on gigabit coverage, which is why the time is right to turn our sights to mobile connectivity, where the same sense of mission is needed to deliver the kind of wireless infrastructure that will transform how we live our lives and run our economy.
“This is not simply a matter of improving download speeds as people browse the internet on their phones or dial into work calls. It is far more transformative than that.”
The full UK Wireless Infrastructure Strategy can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-wireless-infrastructure-strategy/uk-wireless-infrastructure-strategy#chapter-7--shaping-the-development-of-6g