Quickline’s Trial 5G Wireless Network in Lincolnshire Set to Go Live

Wireless UK ISP Quickline has announced that their part of the £2.1m Government funded 5G Rural Integrated Testbed (5GRIT) pilot is due to start testing its new network later this month, which will initially aim to bring superfast broadband to holidaymakers across caravan parks in Ingoldmells (Lincolnshire), including Butlins.

The pilot was first announced last year and covers a number of different projects (here). In this case Quickline’s primary objective is to show that “5G triband can deliver 30Mbps broadband to remote rural areas,” which they appear to be doing by using a combination of high capacity 60GHz mmWave radio links and TV White Space (TVWS) technology.

The exact network setup for Ingoldmells is not completely clear, although one of 5GRIT’s recent newsletters noted that a similar test in Alston had achieved download speeds of up to around 50Mbps.

Alasdair MacLeod, Quickline Developer, said (HU17):

“We are putting in a brand-new hardware infrastructure, which is totally unique, using 5G technology from IgniteNet coupled with other technologies like Ubiquiti, which will provide an innovative wireless product for people to access.

We’ve already positioned telegraph poles across Ingoldmells in a grid structure and we are now preparing to install the electrical cabinets. Then once our technology is switched on and all the boxes (or distribution cabinets) are talking to each other, you need to imagine a net covering the entire area – and it’s that net cast between the poles that will allow superfast broadband to reach the caravan sites and allow multiple devices to be used in the same location without interference.”

We should point out that the 5GRIT project was recently (April 2019) granted a 6-month extension by the Government (DCMS). This will allow for further development of the rural broadband, tourism, farming and UAS use cases. “We are already learning a lot in these areas, but the extension gives the opportunity to show real benefits in key months for both tourism and arable and livestock farming,” said 5GRIT.

The first tests in Ingoldmells, which are being supported by a team from Lancaster University (they’ll monitor the grid infrastructure and its performance), will start at the end of July 2019.