East Midlands

Creative and innovative, the East Midlands houses a number of diverse, knowledge-based industries

Following a multi-million pound investment, Nottingham has recently joined the growing ranks of Gigabit Cities, which alongside a £2m data centre and the creation of a city centre hub for digital tech businesses makes it a prime location for tech businesses. The region has shown a strong commitment to embracing digital technologies and solutions, having implemented smart city and IoT deployments. The 5G Connected Forest project was a world-first undertaking to connect the ancient woodland of Sherwood Forest.

£241 m

Venture capital investment raised by businesses in the East Midlands in the third quarter of 2021
£13 m

Investment in the Institute of Technology - a collaborative project between the University of Derby, Loughborough University, Loughborough College and the Derby College Group.
#1

Nottingham is the top city in the UK for small business growth

Technologies & trends

The region boasts expertise and capabilities in a number of key telecom fields. Learn more about the relevant technologies.

Security

The potential benefits of 5G, future wireless generations and full-fibre digital connectivity can only be realised if we have confidence in the resilience of our infrastructure.

The East Midlands Cluster of the UK Cyber Security Forum represents small companies who are actively working in cyber security across the region, providing opportunities to meet up, network and share best practice.

CybSec is a centre of interdisciplinary cyber security research and education at the University of Nottingham, securing the digital environment through combined advances in formal and human-centric cyber security research. Their core activities sit at the intersection of security technology and those that use it, with projects focused on delivering theoretic security properties in practice, removing technical obstacles and achieving effective and usable approaches, alongside human-centric solutions that empower people to be the strongest link.

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Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is disrupting industry on a broad scale and the telecoms sector is no exception, with Valuates projecting that the global AI in telecoms market size will reach $14.99B by 2027, up from $11.89B in 2020.

The University of Leicester's Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics and Modelling carries out sustainable research in AI, data analytics and modelling; focusing on data-driven AI systems that are resilient, robust, trustworthy and adaptable to changing operational conditions.

Similarly the University of Nottingham has a strong reputation for exploring AI and collaborating with industry. Their interdisciplinary research applies innovative foundational AI research to complex real-world problems such as health, autonomous systems and scientific discovery.

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Diversification

Diversification of the telecoms supply chain is ultimately about choice, a desire to broaden the choice of equipment and solution providers in the sector-driven by commercial, technical and geopolitical factors.

Loughborough based company CommAgility are a partner in the 5G DU-Volution project, while Nottingham based company TerOpta are a partner in the Scalable Optical Fronthaul for 5G OpenRAN project.

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Wireless Networking Technologies

Wireless networking is experiencing a period of exciting change with the development of new generations from 5G to 6G, WiFi 6 and 7, offering new use cases and business cases that extend far beyond just faster speeds.

The Smart Wireless Innovation Facility at Nottingham Trent University is a commercial IoT and 5G testbed facility, available to SMEs, scale ups, larger organisations, and academic institutions. The facility was designed by Digital Catapult to support and accelerate the development and adoption of digital technology and wireless networks-based solutions.

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Deploying 5G in Places

We've spoken to local authorities up and down the UK, to hear first hand how they've approached digital infrastructure and connectivity programmes. Designed to be both practical and pragmatic, we've collated insights, assets and guides that can be replicated and adapted to help you on your journey to 5G.

Discover some of the ways you can seize the opportunity and be better connected.