Digital Minister announces new Qualcomm and 5G RuralDorset relationship

Minister for Digital Infrastructure, Matt Warman today announced a new relationship with wireless technology company Qualcomm Technologies Inc., working with the DCMS 5G Test-beds and Trials Programme:

“Qualcomm is at the cutting-edge of wireless communications and we are delighted to be working with its technology experts as part of our efforts to seize the full potential of 5G to help the country build back better.

“Alongside the 5G RuralDorset project and backed by our £200 million trials scheme, we will explore innovative uses for 5G millimeter wave spectrum to revolutionise the agricultural sector.”

5G RuralDorset will be working alongside the wireless technology innovator as part of its agritech trials. Qualcomm Technologies Inc, will be supplying high frequency, 5G millimetre wave modules to the project in order to test their efficacy in 5G connected robotic farming.

Dave Happy, Security, Spectrum and Collaboration Lead for 5G RuralDorset, said: “Qualcomm Technologies Inc., is the world’s leading wireless technology innovator. We are delighted to be working with the company to assess the capabilities of its latest Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ Platforms and 5G Modem-RF Systems during our R&D testbed in rural Dorset. “

The increased capacity offered by high frequency 5G millimetre wave will allow the robots to upload the huge amount of data they will be gathering in real time. The architecture offered by the Snapdragon processor has various technical advantages. Centralised processing will allow a fleet of robots to learn from each other by taking advantage of the complete dataset, rather than operating in isolation. Multiple robots will be able to communicate and work in parallel which saves time and takes advantage of good weather windows. It also reduces the processing capabilities required by an individual robot thereby reducing the cost of each unit and increasing its battery life.

Happy continued; “Our state of the art trials aim to produce the world’s first 5G-ready agri robot and having bleeding edge technologies under the hood is a massive boost.”

Wassim Chourbaji, SVP, Government Affairs, Qualcomm Communications S.A.R.L., commented: “5G mmWave not only brings next-level mobile experiences to users, it can also deliver high-capacity wireless broadband access to urban, suburban, and rural settings. 5GRuralDorset will demonstrate how 5G mmWave can bring smart agriculture capabilities to remote farms.

The widespread use of 5G mmWave technology in the UK would mark a significant step towards bridging the current digital divide. It is an endorsement of mmWave’s potential that alongside trials like this one in Dorset, we are already seeing strong commercial momentum for mmWave with a number of rollouts already taking place across Europe.”

The forward thinking, innovative use cases that make up the Future of Food research area present Qualcomm Technologies with access to a wide-scale real-world agriculture test bed.

About Qualcomm

Qualcomm is the world’s leading wireless technology innovator and the driving force behind the development, launch, and expansion of 5G. When we connected the phone to the internet, the mobile revolution was born. Today, our foundational technologies enable the mobile ecosystem and are found in every 3G, 4G and 5G smartphone. We bring the benefits of mobile to new industries, including automotive, the internet of things, and computing, and are leading the way to a world where everything and everyone can communicate and interact seamlessly.

Qualcomm Incorporated includes our licensing business, QTL, and the vast majority of our patent portfolio. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, operates, along with its subsidiaries, substantially all of our engineering, research and development functions, and substantially all of our products and services businesses, including our QCT semiconductor business.