EE’s Open Source Network to Help Bring 4G Mobile to UK Rural Areas

Mobile operator EE (part of BT) has partnered up with Lime Micro and Canonical, both of which are key open source technology innovators, to launch a fully programmable network capability that could help to create new applications and improve 4G network coverage to remote rural areas.

The solution is built on Lime’s “network in a box” solution, which allows developers to access and configure the software in order to provide “any wireless service” (e.g. 4G and WiFi) or to create new applications and services for the network itself.

Apparently the first area to benefit from this will be in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, with the University of Highlands and Islands being the first to access the open source network development kits. No firm date is given for when this will occur, except to say that it should happen this year.

Ebrahim Bushehri, CEO of Lime Micro, said:

“We are delighted to be working with EE to bring our Radio Access Network solution to remote areas of the UK, and to start on a journey that will change how mobile networks are built, and who drives the innovation in this industry. We’re committed to making low cost open source hardware that is easy to access and program, to achieve the goal of universal wireless connectivity.”

The box itself, which is better known as a LimeSDR Mini, will be available initially through a crowd funding campaign launching in the coming weeks and that should allow developers to pre-order the kit at a low cost. The kit is described as an “app-enabled software defined radio (SDR) basestation that can be programmed to support any type of wireless standard.”

It’s certainly a fascinating development and one that appears to complement the work being done through the wider Telecom Infrastructure Project.

Mansoor Hanif, EE’s Director of Radio Networks, said:

“Apps and smartphones revolutionised the mobile experience and this could have the same impact on the network – we’re allowing anyone to build an app that can introduce a new service or a new capability to a mobile network. That could be to connect a rural area of the UK for the first time, or to be part of designing how 5G works. This type of innovation is vital to evolving wireless networks, and we’re making sure that the UK is at the forefront of that.”

At this stage we’re still not sure how much this work will ultimately benefit future network development, although you can never underestimate the ingenuity of humans to come up with clever solutions to difficult problems.

We have of course seen a number of wireless ISP’s deploying networks using a not dissimilar “network in a box” style solution, which can often be linked to a good fixed line broadband or Ethernet data supply. But this might be the first time that a major UK Mobile Network Operator (MNO) has offered up an open source option directly to developers.