Oxfordshire County Council has chosen Vodafone to build and manage a 5G Standalone (5G SA) mobile private network (MPN) at Harwell Science and Innovation Campus.
The MPN will provide enhanced wireless 5G connectivity to the various technology laboratories, startups and research institutions based on the campus, by delivering high speed, low latency and high bandwidth wireless connectivity.
Once in place, this network will unlock the full capabilities of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, allowing greater real-time control of production and seamless handover of internet protocol traffic, such as during voice and video calls, as people move from one building to another.
In doing so, on-site organisations will be better equipped to tackle some of today’s most pressing challenges across advanced manufacturing, transport logistics, energy and healthcare. This includes the European Space Agency, which selected Vodafone to work as part of a consortium to create a 5G/6G Hub on Harwell Campus in 2023.
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Vodafone to act as delivery partner on the project, providing and maintaining 5G Standalone for lab as it aims to help local businesses overcome barriers to adopting advanced technologies.
Because the network is private and secure, it lets these companies tap into specialised custom services that would simply not be feasible on a public network. This could include asset tracking, drone detection, machine-to-machine connectivity, condition monitoring and various augmented and virtual reality applications.
The decision has been made on behalf of England’s Connected Heartland (ECH). As part of the UK Government’s 5G Innovation Region programme, ECH brings together five local authorities – Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, Central Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire – to speed up the adoption of advanced wireless technology.
The announcement comes off the back of Vodafone also being recognised as a Leader in the inaugural 2025 Gartner® Magic QuadrantTM for 4G and 5G Private Mobile Network Services. The associated report evaluates how companies can support transformational technologies in order to meet future end-user needs.
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