5G will help to continue the progress and development of technological innovation for Health services and Adult Social Care in parts of rural Worcestershire.

The West Mercia Rural 5G project, testing and trialling the benefits of 5G in rural areas, will launch on the 1st April, following a successful bid which was led by Worcestershire County Council.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has today announced the award of £3.3m to Worcestershire County Council who will be the lead partner for the project.

Other partners in the project include local NHS organisations, alongside Airband and Three - who will plan, build and operate the 5G network. Shropshire Council is also a partner in the project.

The Worcestershire 5G Consortium has won Most Commercially Viable Use Case at the inaugural 5G Realised 'Use Case Awards'.

The Consortium, led by Worcestershire County Council and the Worcestershire LEP picked up the award at the recent 5G Realised Event.

The Consortium recently announced the switch on of the UK's first-ever 5G live factory trials, with locally based companies Worcester Bosch, Yamazaki Mazak and QinetiQ taking part to test end-to-end application performance, taking initial measures of 5G speeds and latency.

The Worcestershire 5G consortium, led by the County Council and Worcestershire LEP launched the first-ever British 5G factory trials at the Worcester Bosch factory earlier this week.

The switch on, which took place at Worcester Bosch, allows the UK to strive firmly ahead of its European peers in the race for 5G, and through the collaboration of partners, Worcestershire will be at the heart of the technological advance.