UK.gov spends £4m on 5G mobile mast light project • The Register

New 5G cell sites will spring from streetlights, traffic lights and CCTV poles across the country as part of Britain’s plans to extend low-latency mobile connectivity to the masses.

The £4m scheme, first launched in September last year, saw eight companies win £500,000 contracts to ‘explore how digital software can help simplify local authority processes when telecom operators request access to public buildings and curbside infrastructure”.

Rather than attaching them directly to any nearby public pole, competition winners will automate the process of engaging with the UK’s labyrinthine planning system. The current laws mean that local councils, with all the variations and inconsistencies that come with having hundreds across the country, decide what can be built on their plots.

Digital Infrastructure Minister Julia Lopez said in a statement: “Currently, mobile phone companies are struggling to get the data they need to verify that a lamp post, bus shelter or public building is suitable. hosting their kit. These eight pilots will help solve this problem by modernizing the way local authorities and operators work together to deliver faster, more reliable mobile coverage to millions of people.”

The areas chosen for the program include Angus, Dundee, Fife, Perth and Kinross in Scotland, as well as Tyneside, Sunderland, Dudley, Wolverhampton, Somerset, Dorset and “several other areas across England” from the Department of Digital, culture and media. and Sport lyrics.

Disputes over the locations of mobile antennas and the rents payable by landlords have been a constant feature of mobile network operations in Britain since the first network infrastructure was deployed locally.

As early as 2009, the Church of England said that mobile mast companies wishing to place their masts on church spires would have to negotiate with the local parish council. Everywhere else on the church grounds there was a standard lease that both parties signed but not, it seems, the places of worship themselves.

Fast forward 12 years and Transport for London was desperately trying to fend off mast surveyors by implausibly claiming to a judge that contractors EE and Three could ‘upload a virus’ to London Underground’s control centre.

Disputes over mast placement and the rent to be paid led to the creation of a specific industry code over who pays what and for how long, as illustrated by a 2019 court case between Vodafone and the University of London .

Meanwhile, anti-5G conspiracy theorists have been pretty vocal in their opposition to the new technology. Some set fire to a telephone mast in Birmingham a few years ago claiming it was some kind of mind control ray sponsored by the Illuminati and Bill Gates. Two French monks were charged in September with doing something similar in France, telling local cops they wanted to “warn people about the harmful effects of 5G”.

5G is no more harmful than 4G LTE, which is harmless enough unless you try to physically eat the network gear. Even then, the risk comes from electric shock or indigestion. ®