ECH at LAMMA 2025
On January 15th and 16th, our ECH team attended the LAMMA conference at the NEC in Birmingham. LAMMA is the UK’s leading farm machinery show, connecting farmers with innovative companies offering advanced agricultural machinery and technology.
Our team enjoyed meeting people from the farming industry at the event. We were located on the DSIT stand, next to our delivery partners on the 5G Rail project, AWTG.
“Our 5G Rail project will build a 5G Stand Alone (SA) Mobile Private Network (MPN) along sections of the line of East West Rail between Bicester and Bletchley with limited or poor mobile connectivity. This will offer up to 700Mbs bandwidth to the train using a shared access spectrum. We’re working with the train operating company, Network Rail Telecoms and Icomera. While our solution is not a blanket solution for every railway in the UK, it’s a chance to solve the longstanding issue of poor passenger connectivity.
The solution we’ve planned has a unique twist: we want the network to benefit local trackside neighbours along the route – such as farmers using the network for agri-tech applications, and remote businesses and homes who may be in rural not-spots. Network Rail should be able to utilise the connectivity for their operational requirements by using IoT devices onboard. The IoT devices offload data which can support efficiency and safety. Early deliverables will enable CCTV to be live streamed from the train and point-of-sale equipment on the train to operate properly, with other operational data transfer made possible subject to Network Rail policy.
The antennas point to the track and the hinterland. This is key to making the solution financially viable over the long term; the more stacked use cases can be realised, the stronger the business case for the 5G network becomes. The mobile infrastructure will make use of existing GSMR masts wherever possible and backhaul is economically provisioned by 432 fibre previously invested in by councils in the region.” – Craig Bower, ECH Programme Director. Read more at UKTIN.
Smart Agriculture
5G enables the use of advanced technologies such as IoT sensors, drones, and autonomous machinery. These technologies can monitor environmental conditions, track livestock, and manage crops more efficiently, leading to optimised resource use and increased yields.
Photos from the LAMMA Show
Check out more photos from the LAMMA Show below!
