Mobile Access North Yorkshire (MANY)

Government funding: £4,431,677 

Project Summary

The Mobile Access North Yorkshire (MANY) project will support the development of future rural connectivity in the county by developing new technologies, apps and services tailored for rural areas. These will focus on tourism, mental health, coverage for emergency services and environmental management.

The project will build small mobile phone networks in areas that have no mobile coverage. It aims to understand how the public, private and community sectors can work together to reduce the cost of delivering mobile access in rural areas.  The project is led by Quickline Communications, the largest wireless ISP in the country working with North Yorkshire County Council, two universities and four small businesses.

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More about this project

Addressing four use cases, which are relevant and integral to North Yorkshire and wider rural areas it will highlight how 5G can:

• Boost tourism and other rural businesses to develop a growth economy
• Enhance environmental monitoring supporting relief agencies and council led teams
• Support mission critical services delivery and
• Improve residents’ wellbeing and mental health.

In order to achieve this, the project will use newly available software technology and the spectrum – 1.8 to 4.2Ghz – to develop the network. Delivered using small items of radio equipment distributed across the network and controlled by locally installed software, it will provide the end user with ultrafast connections enabling broadband and data telephony in areas of current ‘not spots’.

A further element of the project will be to enable connectivity with a conventional mobile signal by working with MNOs allowing them to roam onto the network.

Led by Quickline Communications, the consortium includes North Yorkshire County Council; the universities of York and Lancaster – Management School and School of Computing and Computer Science – aql ltd, Cybermoor 5G services, Flo-culture, Wireless coverage and Safenetics. The consortium partners combines a wide range of experience and expertise relevant to the design and delivery of high-speed connectivity to rural communities.

Prof. Katy Mason, Lancaster University Management School - Early research findings from MANY

Filming with BBC Click – SafeNetics Blog

Graham Worsley of SafeNetics reports on the weekend spent filming with BBC Click on February 19th and 20th 2022. 

The episode was broadcast on 5th March 2022. and is available in the UK on iPlayer. We expect international colleagues to be able watch on the BBC World channel BBC Click website. We hope to add a link here in the coming days.

This work is carried out as a part of the DCMS funded project: Mobile Access North Yorkshire (MANY), with close collabroation wtih Swaledale Moutnain Rescue Team. SMRTs dog team were away on another exercise and so Andy of Upper Wharfdale team brought Kes over for the demo.

Read more here...

Interview with Matt O'Neill, Assistant Director of Growth Planning & Trading Standards