Building on the UK’s regional and national strengths, UKTIN’s Clusters Group exists to provide an open forum for inter-regional collaboration, sharing of best practices, insights and dissemination of learnings. Its overarching aim is to advance the adoption of advanced connectivity and has been designed to ensure all regions and nations of the UK can benefit equally.
The group focuses on showcasing and highlighting the capabilities and approaches of individual regions. Richard Greenslade, a Technical Architect at Coventry Council, shared his insights.
What does Coventry’s telecoms landscape look like?
Coventry has brilliant fibre options, which is fantastic for residents and businesses. We are well on our way to becoming a full-fibre broadband city, which is very exciting.
Coventry City Council built its own fibre network in 2007 to connect council buildings and schools. This was quite unusual at the time, but the cost of BT fibre wires was prohibitively expensive and building our own provided a solution. In June 2014, we sold the asset to CityFibre, a British telecoms network provider. They later received investment and connected 127,000 properties in the city. Openreach has then added to that.
As for the mobile side, we have small cells deployed on lampposts in the city, working with Freshwave, O2, BT and EE. We also have a joint network with Severn Trent Water, which intends to transform Coventry into a smart water region with a smart meter network roll-out.
How does Coventry Council fit into this?
Coventry Council is an enabler. We know that by having reliable connectivity, we will attract people and the best businesses to the city.
We facilitate in many ways, but collaboration is always at the centre of our work. For example, we partner with Balfour Beatty which has the PFI arrangement- a public finance initiative to manage the lampposts. It is part of our role to work through these contractual obligations.
Coventry Council also has a strong partnership with Vodafone. We are technically a customer, but we work in collaboration with them: when 5G was being rolled out for the City of Culture, we helped resolve planning issues with deploying their masts and towers.
Often, we will have meetings with the likes of CityFibre and say, “OK, we’re digging here.” Once we've put the expensive paving slabs down, ideally we don’t want to dig them out again. Communication is a key part of our strategy.
How does your telecoms function operate?
Typically, external organisations will go through the “services route”. Someone like me will be the main point of contact and then we will pass the organisation over to the right department: this might be “property”, “legal” or “street lighting”.
Contributing to the UK’s broader aims
We are very keen to innovate and be a part of government initiatives. Coventry Council is beta testing a new cybersecurity process, working closely with DSIT.
Digital connectivity is mutually beneficial. By improving telecoms in Coventry, we improve the region as a whole. Ultimately, the technologies we put in place will enable the likes of driverless cars and drones, and UK plc will gain too.
Our relationship with the universities of Coventry and Warwick also plays a role here. We provide technological assistance for their initiatives and projects, again, contributing to the UK’s broader connectivity aims.
Head to the Coventry City Council website to learn more, and find out more about the UKTIN Clusters Group here.
