LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dense Air & Dublin City Council win the 2019 Small Cell Forum Award for Social Impact – ‘Promoting Small Cells for Social/Economic/Environmental Development’. It follows successful completion of the first phase of a ground breaking 5G research and development network in Dublin’s Docklands delivered as part of the Dublin City Council (DCC) ‘Smart Docklands’ initiative.
This strategic partnership between Dense Air and DCC announced in January 2018 was intended to provide a framework for the large-scale deployment of a “pervasive” 5G connectivity solution across Dublin, and also intended to develop a blue print for future deployments globally. The initial findings have demonstrated that Neutral Host Small Cells can provide unrivalled benefits to cities and mobile operators.
Working with City council departments, national agencies, building owners and the Science Foundation Ireland CONNECT Research Centre for future networks based in TCD, Dense Air have focused on understanding how best to deploy small cells on city owned street assets build neutral-host infrastructure that can be used simultaneously, by multiple mobile network providers and private networks to simplify the small cell installation process. Having an efficient, affordable, scalable and repeatable processes, are key factors in deploying 5G small cells networks, where densification and improved indoor performance will require access to city street assets including lamp posts and traffic lights.
The judging panel stated that: “There are many interesting smart city projects involving small cells but the collaboration between Dense Air and Dublin City Council stands out for the variety of services supported, and well-quantified benefits to citizens, businesses and visitors The judges were also impressed by the neutral host model, which they believe will be very significant in lowering barriers to deployment of large networks.”
Jamie Cudden, Smart City Program Manager said:“Dublin City Council is delighted to be recognised by the Small Cell Forum for our collaboration with Dense Air. The delivery of this project was only possible through collaboration with the CONNECT research centre for future networks, local building owners and the engagement of our wider Smart Docklands partner network.
“Pervasive connectivity offers cities a clear competitive advantage and we are now ideally placed to provide a perfect live 5G test environment for companies to work with us to trial services that can help us solve different challenges. Furthermore Dublin is now providing other cities globally a template for how they can realise the future 5G opportunity.”
Paul Senior, CEO of Dense Air said “We are absolutely thrilled to have received two awards at the 2019 Small Cell Forum World Summit in London. These awards recognise Dense Air’s unique neutral host business model based on densification using small cells, and deployment and engagement we have with cities, namely Dublin City Council.”
Building on the success of this project, Dublin City Council will host the prestigious Harvard TECH Innovators Forum in partnership with Dense Air from 7-9th October 2019; Bringing together city technology leaders from across the world to share emerging best practice for 5G deployments and showcasing the Dublin Docklands 5G Pervasive Network.
Dr. David Ricketts, Innovation Fellow in the Technology in Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard (TECH) comments that, ”We are delighted to bring together cities in Dublin to share best practice experiences on how they can manage disruptive technologies in a way that will allow us to build better communities for everyone. This unique gathering will bring the top global city technology leaders together to better understand how cities can best leverage and lead on the 5G opportunity.”
https://theinnovatorsforum.org/
Dense Air is headquartered in London, UK and has offices in the target launch markets of Ireland, Belgium, Portugal, Australia & New Zealand. Dense Air provides a unique “carrier of carriers” wholesale neutral host small cell services to deliver cost-effective densification to existing mobile carriers or service providers. Dense Air is conducting extensive trials and proof-of-concepts in 2019 and will offer commercial services in 2020. Dense Air provides small cell services in Ireland based on licensed 3.4-3.8GHz radio spectrum awarded by Ireland regulator in 2017.
Dublin City Council (DCC) is leading a series of innovative partnerships with world-leading technology companies through its Smart Dublin initiative. The Smart Docklands district was set up in February 2018 to deliver and fast-track smart city projects and deployments and understand the different types of connectivity and networks that would enable future cities. This was established in partnership with CONNECT, a national research centre for connectivity and future networks. Smart Docklands was a first of its kind in Ireland, where the municipality and academia have created a dedicated Project Management Office (PMO) to play an independent role amongst multiple stakeholders, from global technology companies to local residents’ groups, from academic institutions to international property developers, innovative start-ups and SMEs to fast track emerging smart city opportunities. http://smartdocklands.ie/
