Birmingham City Council pilots 4G

Council teams up with UK Broadband to trial security benefits of next-generation mobile broadband

3G networks are choked with increasing data traffic

Birmingham City Council (BCC) is working with wireless company UK Broadband to pilot next-generation 4G mobile broadband.

If the trial is successful, BCC will be ready to implement 4G, likely to be widely available in 2012.

“The 4G trial will provide end-user feedback and valuable information about the capabilities of wireless technologies,” said Raj Mack, head of Digital Birmingham, an initiative that aims to connect the city to new technologies.

“The first phase of the trial is restricted geographically to Birmingham Science Park but will present the council with the ability to experience a cohesive wireless infrastructure,” he added.

4G runs at least 10 times faster than 3G and has a number of security benefits. 3G users can only share the same network, preventing secure communications. However, 4G allows the segmentation of virtual private secure networks.

These allow organisations to utilise a secure guaranteed data channel on a network only accessible to authorised users.

Currently, 3G operators are seeing the amount of data carried on their network double every year. This is set to increase with the launch of the iPad and other tablet devices.