Government pumps £60,000 into spectrum research body

Ed Vaizey announces cash from "notoriously mean" DCMS

The government has announced funding of £60,000 for the Spectrum Policy Forum body, a division of trade body TechUK.

The funding will be provided to the Spectrum Policy Forum by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to help the group continue its work researching spectrum use and how it can be improved for the future.

Communications minister Ed Vaizey announced the funding at the 5G Huddle event on Monday, hosted by TechUK and attended by V3.

"DMCS, which is a notoriously mean and tight department, has managed to find £60,000 to support this work which is clearly a vote of huge confidence," he said.

The funding comes 12 months after the Spectrum Policy Forum was first launched, with the backing of the DCMS.

Associate director for Telecoms and Spectrum at techUK, Raj Sivalingam, told V3 the funding was a real boost for the organisation and proved the government was genuinely interested in spectrum and its development.

"The money is great because of the commitment it signifies. The most important thing for us is to ensure that when we do our work the government is listening," he said.

Sivalingam said the funding would likely be used to carry out research projects on important issues, such as new uses for ultra-high frequency (UHF) spectrum and the development of high-speed WiFi networks, akin to 5G services.

At the event on Monday former UK science minister David Willetts said he sees future 5G services as a vital part of the UK's digital future as they will be the bedrock for the Internet of Things.

However, he warned privacy and data fears could hold this back, and so he urged the industry to tackle this head-on, rather than dealing with it in the future, after issues have come to light that put consumers off data-sharing.