More than 20 new small cells will be deployed across Manchester city centre to enhance mobile 4G and later 5G connectivity.
Installed by the connectivity infrastructure-as-a-service provider Freshwave, small cells will boost signal reception for those on the Virgin Media O2 network in busy areas of the UK city, including outside the Arndale Shopping Centre, Manchester Piccadilly Station and Piccadilly Gardens.
“Everyone in Manchester deserves to benefit from high quality, reliable digital infrastructure,” said Councillor Rabnawaz Akbar, Executive Member for Finance and Resources at Manchester City Council. “We believe that this agreement is a significant step towards achieving the aims set out in our Digital Strategy for 2021-26, which outlines our ambitious vision to build a more digitally enabled future for Manchester.”
The deployment of outdoor small cells on city infrastructure, such as lamp posts, is becoming increasingly important, particularly in busy city centres where mobile signals do not penetrate to street level from larger masts. As mobile data demand is continuing to increase, many cities are looking to use outdoor small cells, which are fixed at street level without extra clutter being added to the streetscape, to boost network capacity in busy areas.
“Cities are certainly becoming more interested in how they can work with providers such as ourselves as well as the mobile network operators to help enhance connectivity in their areas and attract inward investment,” Nick Wiggin, Head of Partnerships, Freshwave, told Cities Today. “Deploying digital infrastructure needs collaboration across both the council and different industry partners and there’s definitely an appetite there from cities and local government. We try to focus on securing buy-in from the local authority at the outset.”
Although it can be a slower process working with local government, Wiggin said that it is mainly due to a lack of dedicated digital resources in cities.
“There are so many competing priorities for them to deliver on,” he said. “The placement of Digital Champions into local authorities, as having a point of contact in a local authority that can help move the process forward, is incredibly helpful.”
Wiggin added that following the agreement with Manchester City Council he hopes to deliver more connectivity across the city and other locations such as hospitals, education campuses and other businesses.
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