InterDigital, a mobile technology research and development company, announced that it has won a bid to participate in the UK 5G Smart Tourism project. The project is part of Phase 1 of the 5G Testbeds and Trials program run by the UK government’s Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)and will be led by the West of England Combined Authority following its success in securing £5 million (€5.73 million) from the UK government to trial a superfast 5G network at tourist destinations in Bath and Bristol.
The trial will see 5G infrastructure put in place at the Roman baths in the city of Bath, and in Bristol at the M Shed museum, in and around the We The Curious science centre, and in Millennium Square. InterDigital will join the consortium of 25 companies and organisations, made up of 5G network service providers, tourism and business support organisations, tech hubs, research bodies and more.
The announcement further reinforces InterDigital’s key role in the development of 5G and adds to the company’s portfolio of UK technology research and development projects. For example, in August 2017 InterDigital partnered with Bristol is Open (BIO) to showcase its FLIPS (Flexible-IP services) solution, the world’s first successful Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) 5G network architecture trial. The 5G Smart Tourism project will once again see InterDigital and BIO collaborate, with InterDigital’s FLIPS solution delivering important improvements on key performance aspects, such as latency and throughput, for virtual and augmented reality use cases in the tourism space.
“Winning this bid is a perfect testament to the importance of InterDigital’s research and development in the mobile technology space,” said Alan Carlton, vice president, InterDigital International at InterDigital. “We are committed to helping towards the successful rollout of 5G in a way that will significantly change and enhance the way we live our lives. This is about much more than smart tourism: a successful trial will position the West of England as a leader in harnessing 5G technologies to connect citizens, homes, transport, businesses and organisations.”
Tim Bowles, Mayor for the West of England, commented: “The 5G Smart Tourism bid will allow us to trial some exciting technology at our top tourist attractions, whilst looking at wider and longer-term benefits for our region. This new technology holds the key to a more advanced, sustainable and smart future which will revolutionise the way we all live, travel and work.”
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