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.”
End.
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on Twitter, Google+, Facebook and Linkedin.
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Unless anyone knows different, I assume Essex County Council still maintain their longstanding absolute ban on the use of lampposts for mobile (and presumably wifi) equipment. Though receiver aerials are OK. Money talks, a little. Can’t go around upsetting the locals can we? Not sure they’re known for their beautiful lampposts though, and certainly not a consistent style (if that’s what it’s called).
“They can also be applied inside venues such as shopping centres, where increased footfall puts a strain on existing infrastructure.”
Or conversely the highly accurate location tracking which is now present in most major shopping centres can now be extended to the high street, hell why not just all the streets? 🙁
Just turn your phone off if you’re worried.
“Just turn your phone off if you’re worried.”
Nice idea, sadly there is no such thing as ‘off’ in modern smartphones with batteries that are not removable by the end user:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34444233
Unfortunately carrying a Faraday cage can be a bit of a drag…
Leave your phone at home or do not own one in the first place, might be an idea for the schizophrenics.
What happens when they ‘upgrade’ the lamp posts on the street outside my house…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_…
Apart from him stating TWO suggestions and you failing to read BOTH id say you have far bigger worries than being tracked and a mobile phone. Playing with an electrical socket while wearing your foil hat may help.
Alan,
You are mistaking “failing to read” on my part with “failure to contain anything useful” from the OP…
Perhaps I should use the same approach as you in my replies, if you dont like them then please feel free to poke your own eyes out with a rusty spoon…
Which IMHO is about as reasonable as suggesting that its possible to turn off a modern phone, or to expect somebody to not leave their how to avoid being subject to mass surveillance…
Sadly it seems that the ignorant masses are going to deserve the society that is going to make a brave new world look like a walk in the park and 1984 like utopia.
Bet you all voted for Brexit as well… *hangs head in shame*