City of Bath to Deploy New 5G OpenRAN Mobile Pilot this Summer

The Western O-RAN Deployment (WORD) project, which is supported by £9.9m of public funding from the UK Government (here), is to begin rolling out a new Open Radio Access Network (OpenRAN) using 5G Standalone technology to serve parts of the City of Bath in Somerset (England) where demand is at its highest – starting “later this summer“.

The 2-year project, which is part of the government’s wider Open Networks Ecosystem Competition (ONE), is being led by Telet and aims to deploy the new 5G SA (mobile broadband) network to around 16 small low power cell radio units in key locations – connected via a fibre cables – on lamp posts and CCTV sites around the “heart of the city” (down from the 24 stated in their original plan).

The focus here seems to be on how they can harness OpenRAN and 5G SA technologies to better cater for areas of “high density demand” (i.e. lots of people and heavy network load). There is also a heritage aspect to the bid, whereby the new kit will be designed in keeping with Bath’s World Heritage Status (i.e. cells must visually support the local environment), something that to date has been a blocker on digital connectivity in the city.

The funding for the pilot scheme in Bath is £773,132, which will also involve between 200 to 300 volunteers, from a broad mix of local communities (they’ll be given a SIM card and a high-end Smartphone), testing the new 5G network. If successful, there would be an opportunity to open up the network to the wider public following consultation in mid 2025.

The network will be deployed in a key pedestrian corridor towards the Roman Baths and Abbey. Two indoor locations, the Roman Baths and Bath Rugby Stadium, have also been identified as options to install additional radio units (these will harness the 5G bands around 4GHz). But there could also be potential for additional networks to be added to the high streets of Keynsham and Midsomer Norton.

During the pilot phase a number of test events will also take place, where users place high demand on the network at the same time and location (some of these will be combined with big events, like the Christmas Market).

Councillor Paul Roper said:

“Many of us are familiar with the poor mobile phone reception areas in the city centre, especially on busy days when, with the current system, it is difficult to even send texts and make phone calls.

We have carried out surveys and many residents cite connectivity issues, reliability and cost as a barrier to accessing services and information online. So it is great news that our area has been selected for this Government-funded pilot which aims to address those digital inequalities and improve mobile connectivity in a highly-challenging World Heritage City. If the pilot proves successful we hope it will be opened up to the wider public next year.”

The project doesn’t currently appear to be specifically supported by any named mobile network operators, although they’re building a Neutral Host network and this should thus be accessible to any operators that want to use it (assuming the commercials are attractive enough for them).

Just for some context. Standalone (SA) networks are pure 5G end-to-end mobile networks (i.e. no older 4G is involved), which tends to make them faster and more efficient. Meanwhile, O-RAN introduces flexibility and lower costs by standardising the design and functionality of radio kit and software, thus increasing the number of companies able to supply them via vendor-neutral hardware and software-defined technology, while also boosting interoperability.