The UK government is launching 'high-tech' labs in Brighton and London that aim to help speed up the development of new 5G-based technologies and reduce the country's reliance on a small set of providers.
'Sonic Labs' is a joint project from Ofcom and the technology non-profit organisation Digital Catapult, which has used £1 million of seed funding from the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Its aim is to help accelerate the adoption of 'Open RAN' technology, which is seen as a major pillar of the government's 5G Diversification Strategy. Open RAN, which stands for 'radio access network', is an industry-wide standard for supporting interoperation between hardware from different vendors.
It's a key part of the strategy to build a secure and innovative supply chain that is less reliant on a small number of multinational suppliers and more accessible to smaller firms. Essentially, it's about avoiding another Huawei situation, where multiple UK providers were using the Chinese firm's equipment and very few alternatives were available upon its removal.
"Our investment is a crucial element of our strategy to tackle the world's over-reliance on a small number of telecoms vendors by growing our own cutting-edge solutions at home," digital infrastructure minister Matt Warman said.
"I look forward to seeing how the lab will help deliver the incredible social and economic benefits of new technology for people around the UK."
RELATED RESOURCE
How to maximise the value of your data and apps with IaaS
Free yourself from infrastructure complexity
Sonic Labs will be a 'real-world' testing facility, according to the government, open to multiple providers to supply components for 5G radio equipment and examine how their kits work in a fully interoperable mobile network.
"In Sonic Labs we are experimenting to make interoperability a reality," said Joe Buttler, Digital Catapult CTO. "This effort supports our mission to drive UK capability in advanced digital technology and we are grateful to Ofcom for working with us in this partnership and to DCMS for the opportunity to leverage the 5G testbeds we have developed in this effort."
-
Cleo attack victim list grows as Hertz confirms customer data stolenNews Hertz has confirmed it suffered a data breach as a result of the Cleo zero-day vulnerability in late 2024, with the car rental giant warning that customer data was stolen.
-
Lateral moves in tech: Why leaders should support employee mobilityIn-depth Encouraging staff to switch roles can have long-term benefits for skills in the tech sector
-
Google shakes off tariff concerns to push on with $75 billion AI spending plans – but analysts warn rising infrastructure costs will send cloud prices sky highNews Google CEO Sundar Pichai has confirmed the company will still spend $75 billion on building out data centers despite economic concerns in the wake of US tariffs.
-
Cisco wants to capitalize on the ‘DeepSeek effect’News DeepSeek has had a seismic impact, and Cisco thinks it has strengths to help businesses transition to AI-native infrastructure
-
CoreWeave’s first two UK data centers are now operationalNews The company's European plans for this year also include new facilities in Norway, Sweden, and Spain
-
AWS eyes ‘flexible’ data center expansion with $11bn Georgia investmentNews The hyperscaler says the infrastructure will power cloud computing and AI growth
-
Future-proofing operationsWhitepaper The Foundational Role of IT Infrastructure and Connectivity Solutions in Achieving Business KPIs
-
Quantitative analysis of a prefabricated vs. traditional data centerWhitepaper Apples to apples cost analysis between data centre types
-
Battery technology for single phase UPS systems: VRLA vs. Li-ionWhitepaper An overview of li-ion batteries in comparison to VRLA batteries for singlephase UPS applications
-
Architecting enterprise networks for the next decadeWhitepaper A new paradigm in network architecture
