Out-Law News 1 min. read

Trans Pennine railway 5G trials advertised


Businesses keen on trialling technology that could provide '5G' connectivity to passengers travelling between Leeds and Manchester have been urged to express their interest in doing so to the UK government.

The trials, due to start next year, are aimed at exploring the use of trackside infrastructure to improve broadband connectivity on the Trans Pennine railway line. The scheme complements other government initiatives aimed at digitising the UK's infrastructure and the tests are likely to inform other projects for improving connectivity for rail passengers in the UK.

With its Trans Pennine initiative (TPI), the government is keen to find businesses that have developed "track-to-train and on-train radio solutions" capable of delivering "optimised bandwidth services up to 1Gbps". Businesses interested in participating in the trials have until 14​ September to register their interest, according to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) (12-page / 162KB PDF).

DCMS said the trials will utilise telecoms infrastructure that is being installed along the Trans Pennine railway line in a separate 'full fibre' broadband project being delivered by Network Rail.

"Trialists will be given the opportunity to deploy their trial radio equipment on the TPI pilot route (Manchester to Leeds), along all of the trackside infrastructure as well as in trains, without the need to invest in trackside infrastructure," DCMS said.

Businesses participating in the trials stand to benefit from the opportunity to test the capacity, availability, coverage and security of their technologies in "a live environment with a wide demographic of passengers", it said.

"It will provide trialists with testing scenarios using actual passengers through different communities along the TPI route such as cities, suburbs, towns, rural villages etc," DCMS said. "This information will allow solutions to be optimised to passenger needs along the route as well as providing valuable research and development opportunities to trialists."

The trials could last up to a year and are due to start in March 2019. Funding for the trials will come from a £35 million pot already set aside by the government to support "rail passenger connectivity improvements", the government said.

Telecoms expert Simon Colvin of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said: "It is good to see DCMS encouraging development of innovative technologies in the rail sector as a key area of focus for their 5G trails programme. Removing the cost of trackside infrastructure will enable barriers to entry to be removed for this trail phase and allow a diversification of bidders and technologies potentially. The Trans Pennine route will provide a good test bed for different physical environments and diverse use cases."

The UK's minister for digital, Margot James, said: "The importance of fast, reliable and uninterrupted connectivity on our rail network is only going to increase. Projects like the Trans Pennine initiative will be instrumental in delivering this for passengers, and are all part of our commitment to make the UK a world leader in 5G."

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