International law firm Trowers & Hamlins has advised West Midlands 5G (WM5G) on the launch of the UK's first 5G Accelerators to be implemented by a consortium led by Telefonica UK (O2).
The major contract will see the build across three cities - Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Coventry & Warwick. The other consortium members include Deloitte, Wayra and the Digital Catapult.
WM5G is the organisation delivering the UK’s first region-wide 5G testbed, backed by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the West Midlands Combined Authority.
The launch will enable thousands of businesses and public sector organisations to experience 5G first-hand in a cutting-edge facility, identify the opportunities that 5G can address for their organisation and then spearhead the development of exciting new 5G services working closely with entrepreneurs and investors.
Amardeep Gill, Trowers, who led on the project said:
"This is an extremely exciting time for our region to be at the forefront of innovative technology, bringing significant benefit to at least 2,000 businesses and public sector organisations from across the West Midlands. There will be a ripple effect of this project in attracting investment and business development through the use of ground-breaking technology, not only in our region, but across the rest of the UK as this is implemented further. We look forward to the new opportunities this opens up for businesses and communities, notwithstanding the current climate."
Robert Franks, Managing Director of WM5G, said:
“The West Midlands has a proud heritage leading the previous industrial revolution. Through the 5G Accelerators that we’re launching in partnership with O2 and its consortium partners, our region is in prime position to lead the next industrial revolution.”
Through the 5G Accelerators, businesses and public sector organisations will be able to take advantage of a variety of short-term engagements to understand what 5G is (such as experience days), followed by more immersive engagements to understand what benefits 5G could bring their organisation specifically (such as hackathons) followed by longer-term engagements to test and prove new 5G products and services (such as proof of concepts or innovation calls with start-ups.)
The team was led by Birmingham Commercial head Amardeep Gill together with Louis Sebastian, Dan Goddard, Rebecca McGuirk, Paul McDermott, Julian Jarrett, Sonal Dingri and Victoria Pearson.