Surrey university 5G research centre plans unveiled

The University of Surrey said the 5G research centre would be completed in 2015

The design for a Surrey centre that aims to spearhead the search for a successor to fourth generation (4G) mobile communication technology has been unveiled.

The University of Surrey said its £35m 5G Innovation Centre would employ 130 researchers and about 90 PhD students.

It also plans to use lamppost base stations around its campus to create a network to test any future technology.

The university said it expected the centre to be completed by January 2015.

'Exciting vision'

It is being funded by mobile operators, infrastructure providers and the UK Research Partnership Investment Fund.

Rahim Tafozolli, professor of mobile wireless communications and the director of Surrey University's Centre for Communications Systems Research, said: "It's an exciting vision of what promises to be a very important centre for not only the university but for the whole of the UK and beyond.

"The designs reflect our aim of being at the very forefront of technology in a fast-moving and interconnected world."

He previously said 5G, which he thinks could be in place by 2020, would need to be more economical than its predecessor.

Other tests into a successor to 4G technology, sometimes referred to as 5G, have been taking place around the world. However, there is currently no agreed definition of what 5G is or how it will work.