Dundee has been announced as the location for the latest Scotland 5G Centre innovation hub.
The venture will become part of the £4m network of hubs announced by the Scottish government last September, as it looks to accelerate the adoption of 5G in the country.
Although the location of the physical site is still to be confirmed, the hub is slated to be operational from May.
In tandem with Abertay University’s Emergent Technology Centre and the InGAME R&D centre, a team from the Scotland 5G Centre will lead work in bringing together industry, academia and government bodies to develop the technology.
Facilities will include a testbed for organisations to advance new applications and services for potential business models.
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As well as companies involved in such directly applicable fields as gaming and interactive entertainment, sectors including healthcare and manufacturing are also set to benefit from the initiative. Among the innovations made possible by the twin developments of 5G and IoT platforms are sensor-based systems offering better management of buildings and places, for example, or more smartly deployed healthcare.
With personal and business lives set to become ever-more dependent on internet-reliant services, the hub is also set to design and develop new products, tools and software to ensure the safety and security of access to the 5G network.
“As the nature of doing business changes and there is an inevitable increase not just in demand, but in expectation, we want to ensure that more businesses in the city can enjoy a more uniform experience, with the greater performance and improved efficiency that 5G offers,” said councillor Mark Flynn, convener of Dundee City Council’s city development committee.
“The local team at the 5G innovation hub will support organisations, networks and communities to get involved in the acceleration of 5G deployment at an earlier stage,” said the Scotland 5G Centre CEO, Paul Coffey.
“We will work closely with the city’s games industry to enable organisations to harness the many opportunities that 5G offers, such as truly simultaneous game play.”