5GBarcelona and Telefònica launch an open lab to test 5G technologies

• The space is intended to turn Barcelona into one of the main hubs of European digital innovation in the field of 5G and will be open to startups, SMEs and corporations
• The objective of this laboratory is to shorten the time-to-market of products and services in pre-production, as well as to increase the speed of other specific research pilots in 5G technology
• The i2CAT Foundation participates actively in the laboratory by coordinating pilot tests

26th September, 2018–5GBarcelona and Telefónica have launched Thinx | 5GBarcelona, a laboratory located at Pier01-Barcelona Tech City and that will be open to startups, SMEs and corporation that wish to experiment and validate new services and applications powered by 5G.

Jordi Puigneró, Minister for Digital Policy and Public Administration; Ada Colau, Mayor of Barcelona; María Jesús Almazor, CEO of Telefónica España; Carlos Grau, CEO of Mobile World Capital Barcelona; and Josep Paradells, director of the i2CAT Foundation, have officially presented the lab to the media.

The event has also counted on the participation of Andrés Escribano, Telefónica’s IOT Global Connectivity Business Director de Telefónica, and Gerard Fernández, CEO of EnGiDi, one of the first companies to validate their products at the lab with the goal of accelerating their implementation.

Value-added services

The laboratory was created with the aim of turning Barcelona into a European digital innovation hub in the field of 5G. This unique testbed will also work as a product accelerator, as it facilitates technical support and knowledge transfer of two 5G technologies like LTEM and narrowband IoT.

The laboratory’s goals are the assistance and supervision of 5G research pilots, the attraction of more talent for the tech ecosystem, and the promotion of development and new technologies to foster the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Barcelona, and by extension in Catalonia.

The Thinx | 5GBarcelona brings value-added services to companies in terms by offering an advanced environment that, one year in advance, reproduces the telecom technologies and networks in which they will have to operate in the future. Experiencing this type of environment implies a direct reduction of the time-to-market of prototypes and, moreover, the opportunity to simulate particular atmospheric conditions, to test under low coverage conditions, or to see how batteries behave in a particular environment.

Coordination of tests

The i2CAT Foundation holds an essential role in the operation of the laboratory, since it is in charge of the coordination and management of pilot tests and technological validation of projects that take place at The Thinx | 5GBarcelona. Likewise, the center will facilitate the integration and connection of the laboratory with the open 5GBarcelona infrastructure once it is enabled.

This activity is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund in the framework of the Programa Operatiu FEDER de Catalunya 2014-2020 and under the “Impuls de la Transformació Digital i Mobile” project (GO10-010783)

About 5GBarcelona

5GBarcelona is a public-private initiative that constitutes an open, neutral and digital hub for the validation and adoption of 5G technologies and applications in a real city environment. The initiative is promoted by the Government of Catalonia, the Barcelona City Hall, Atos, Mobile World Capital Barcelona Foundation, the i2CAT Foundation, the Centre Tecnològic de Telecomunicacions de Catalunya (CTTC) and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC).

5GBarcelona aims at transforming the metropolitan area of Barcelona into a benchmark innovation 5G lab with open experimental infrastructure to test, prototype and implement new digital solutions.