The UK government is seeking to “diversify” the telecoms market and stimulate the creation of products and services from SMEs and startups.

The move will support the UK government’s aim of developing a domestic capability for 5G and making sure the telecoms market includes a variety of vendors, including a larger number of smaller firms.

Innovation company Plexal is working with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) to support the effort.

The announcement was made by DCMS minister Julia Lopez at techUK’s Our Network Future event today.

Through its LORCA programme, Plexal has worked with leaders from the telecoms market to assess where there could be opportunities for SMEs to provide products or services.

Plexal has now identified SMEs that will take part in a “12-week sprint” aimed at developing robust business cases, technology roadmaps and investment plans. The aim is to create a diverse commercial ecosystem for private 5G networks.

The SMEs will work with Plexal, the government and industry to “carve out and develop opportunities” and “overcome any barriers” that exist for startups to play an active role in the telecoms market.

Barriers could include making sure the products are interoperable and have robust cyber security built into them.

Plexal is looking at current and future 5G private networks in two categories - fully private, where the value outcome remains isolated from the public; and private today, but will need to integrate to the public network to realise all the benefits.

Andrew Roughan, managing director of Plexal, said: “We think there’s a big opportunity to understand and develop the role of SMEs in the telecoms market. Our open collaboration model is a novel way to approach the challenge of how the UK creates a diverse telecoms market that supports the creation of home-grown sovereign technology.”

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