Arqiva to Harness 15,000 Lampposts for 4G and Wi-Fi in Kingston-Upon-Thames

Wireless infrastructure developer Arqiva has won a new 10 year concession contract in the Royal Borough of Kingston-Upon-Thames (London), which will enable them to improve 4G and future 5G mobile coverage by installing Small Cell (radio access nodes) telecoms infrastructure.

Arqiva already holds similar contracts for other parts of London including Barnet, Brent, Camden, Hammersmith & Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Hounslow, Islington, Lambeth, Merton, Richmond upon Thames and Wandsworth. On top of that they’ve signed related deals in Manchester, Southampton, Colchester, Eastbourne and Medway.

Small cells are units that are often installed onto street furniture and the sides of buildings to boost mobile capacity in areas where demand is high or existing coverage is poor. They can also be applied inside venues such as shopping centres, where increased footfall puts a strain on existing infrastructure.

However it’s not all about 4G / 5G and Arqiva similarly aims to deploy WiFi access points – mounted on lampposts – in high footfall areas across the borough to provide free public access. Modern cells can often handle both 4G and WiFi from the same unit.

Nicolas Ott, Managing Director of Telecoms & M2M at Arqiva, said:

“Sufficient outdoor connectivity is fast becoming a prerequisite of London-living, hence our dedication to delivering the infrastructure needed to serve all Londoners with fast, seamless and consistent mobile coverage on the move.

Street furniture such as lampposts has a crucial role to play in providing 4G signal to densely populated areas now, and preparing for mobile 5G in a few years. Furthermore, street furniture is integral to the future delivery of 5G Fixed Wireless Access broadband to homes.

We are excited to be working with yet another London Borough, and are pleased that more and more local authorities – like Kingston – are recognising the importance that both their residents and businesses place on connectivity, and exploring the ways that they can boost it.

As we head towards the 5G era, ubiquitous connectivity is becoming increasingly important, and it’s vital that councils act now.”

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