5GRIT stands for 5G Rural Integrated Testbed. The UK government funded the initiative to trial fifth-generation mobile technology in places where operators had little incentive to build towers. It ran from 2018 to 2020. The network never became permanent. Its findings fed into later policy, including the Shared Rural Network effort. But the partners did not keep the testbeds running after the grant ended.
The project won a place in the first round of the DCMS 5G Testbeds and Trials Programme. Quickline Communications, a fixed-wireless broadband provider, led the group. Academic partners included the 5G Innovation Centre at the University of Surrey and Kings College London. The North York Moors National Park Authority joined as a site host and use-case partner.
Testbeds stretched across a trans-regional area: North Yorkshire, plus parts of Cumbria, Northumberland, and the Scottish Borders. These locations were chosen because they represent the kind of low-density terrain where standard mobile economics break down. Few residents. Difficult topography. No business case for a conventional macrocell rollout.
Funding and consortium structure
Where the money came from
The DCMS 5G Testbeds and Trials Programme ran a competitive grant scheme. Its first round distributed a total of £25 million across several projects. 5GRIT was among those selected in 2018. The exact grant value awarded to the group has not been published in a reliably citable form.
Who did what
Quickline Communications acted as lead partner. It deployed and operated the network infrastructure. The 5G Innovation Centre at the University of Surrey brought expertise in radio spectrum management and non-standalone 5G architecture. Kings College London contributed work on low-latency applications and edge processing. The North York Moors National Park Authority provided land access. It helped identify use cases relevant to rural tourism and conservation. It also acted as a liaison with local businesses and farmers.
The group did not include a large mobile network operator. EE, Vodafone and O2 were all absent. That absence was deliberate. The project was designed to test whether a smaller, specialist operator could deliver 5G services using shared spectrum rather than licensed mobile bands.
Technical architecture: shared spectrum and non-standalone 5G
Two shared-spectrum bands
The network did not rely on the licensed 3.4-3.8 GHz band that mobile operators use for their main 5G deployments. Instead, 5GRIT explored two shared-spectrum approaches. The first was TV white space: frequencies in the UHF broadcast band that are unused in a given location. The second was the 3.8-4.2 GHz band. That band is allocated to satellite services but can be shared with terrestrial systems under certain conditions.
Non-standalone architecture
The setup was non-standalone 5G. The radio access network used 5G new radio. Control and management functions relied on an existing 4G core. Most UK mobile operators used this same architecture for their early 5G launches. It allowed the team to deploy 5G coverage without building a full standalone core network. A standalone core would have been prohibitively expensive for a trial of this scale.
Variable throughput by design
Using shared spectrum had a practical consequence. Available bandwidth and signal quality varied by location and time of day. It depended on whether the primary user of the band was active. The project documented these fluctuations in its final reports. It concluded that shared spectrum can work for applications that tolerate variable throughput. Environmental monitors and livestock tracking fit that profile. Real-time video or remote control of machinery may not.
Use case one: drone-based livestock monitoring
The promise
The most widely reported use case involved drones equipped with cameras and detectors. They flew over grazing land to monitor livestock. The drones transmitted high-definition video and telemetry back to a base station over the 5G test network. A farmer or vet could view the footage in near real time. They could identify animals that appeared injured, sick or in distress.
This use case was chosen because livestock farming in the test areas typically involves animals spread across large, uneven fields. Checking them on foot or by quad bike is time-consuming. The project argued that a drone connected over 5G could reduce inspection time. It could also improve animal welfare by enabling earlier intervention.
The reality
The technical challenge was maintaining a stable video link while the drone moved across terrain that blocked line of sight to the base station. The team tested both automated flight paths and manually piloted drones. Results showed that non-standalone 5G with shared spectrum could support drone video at ranges of up to several kilometres. The drone had to stay within the coverage footprint. Where coverage dropped, the video feed switched to a lower resolution. Or it paused until the drone re-entered the covered area.
The team reported that the trial demonstrated technical feasibility. But it noted that commercial deployment would require more base stations. Or it would need a licensed spectrum allocation to guarantee the data rate.
Use case two: augmented reality for tourism
What visitors saw
At historic sites in the North York Moors National Park, the team tested augmented reality applications delivered over 5G. Visitors carrying a tablet or smartphone could point the device at a ruin or landscape feature. They saw a digital overlay showing how the site looked in the past. Or they saw geological and ecological information highlighted on screen.
The AR content was rendered on a server and streamed to the device. Nothing was stored locally. This design was intended to demonstrate that 5G could enable rich, interactive experiences. Visitors would not need to download large apps or data packs before arriving at a site with poor fixed broadband. The project chose locations where existing mobile coverage was weak or nonexistent. The 5G test network was the only viable way to deliver the AR experience.
Where it strained
The trial revealed a tension between ambition and reliability. When the AR experience required high-resolution textures, the shared-spectrum connection sometimes delivered variable latency. The same happened with multiple users in the same area. The team concluded that AR tourism is a viable use case for rural 5G. But the user experience depends heavily on consistent bandwidth. Shared spectrum cannot guarantee that without careful traffic management. The findings informed later discussions about how the Shared Rural Network could prioritise tourist hotspots.
Use case three: environmental monitoring of peatlands
Why peatlands matter
The third major use case involved detectors deployed on peatland. They monitored water levels, temperature and carbon flux. Peatlands are important carbon stores. Their degradation releases greenhouse gases. Monitoring them typically requires researchers to visit remote sites periodically and download data from loggers. The 5GRIT project aimed to show that a 5G-connected detector network could transmit data continuously. That would enable near-real-time tracking of environmental conditions.
How it worked
The detectors used low-power wide-area network technology to communicate with a gateway. The gateway relayed the data over the 5G test network. This setup allowed the detectors to run on batteries for extended periods. They still benefited from the 5G backhaul for data transmission. The project deployed detectors in several locations across the North York Moors and the Scottish Borders.
The environmental monitoring trial was considered a success. The data rates required were low. The shared-spectrum network could handle the traffic even during periods of high interference from primary users. The project's final report noted that this use case had the clearest path to commercial viability. The detector equipment was inexpensive. The connectivity requirements were modest. However, no follow-on commercial deployment was announced by any of the partners after the trial ended.
Outcome and policy influence
What the trial proved
The 5GRIT project concluded its active trial phase in 2020 and delivered final reports to DCMS. The team demonstrated that shared spectrum and non-standalone 5G could support agricultural, tourism and environmental monitoring applications in rural areas. The technical viability of the approach was established.
What it did not prove
The commercial viability was not. No partner committed to operating the network beyond the grant period. The equipment was decommissioned.
Policy legacy
The project's findings fed into subsequent UK government rural connectivity policy. The most direct beneficiary was the Shared Rural Network, a £1 billion programme announced in 2020. It aims to extend 4G and 5G coverage to areas that commercial operators would not otherwise serve. The 5GRIT reports contributed evidence on spectrum sharing models. They also documented the practical challenges of deploying in sparsely populated terrain.
The absence of a large mobile network operator in the group meant there was no obvious route to scaling the testbed into a commercial service. Quickline Communications continued to operate its fixed wireless broadband business. It did not launch a 5G service based on the 5GRIT architecture. As of March 2021, the position since the trial ended has not been publicly updated by the partners. The project answered a specific question about whether rural 5G can work technically. It left the question of whether it can work commercially open.
Key facts
- Project name: 5GRIT (5G Rural Integrated Testbed)
- Funding programme: DCMS 5G Testbeds and Trials Programme, first round (2018)
- Lead partner: Quickline Communications
- Academic partners: 5G Innovation Centre, University of Surrey; Kings College London
- Site partner: North York Moors National Park Authority
- Geographic scope: North Yorkshire (England); Cumbria, Northumberland, Scottish Borders
- Active trial period: 2018 to 2020
- Spectrum used: TV white space and 3.8-4.2 GHz band (shared spectrum)
- Network type: Non-standalone 5G (5G radio with 4G core)
- Key use cases: Drone-based livestock monitoring, augmented reality for tourism, peatland environmental monitoring
- Outcome: Technical feasibility demonstrated; network decommissioned after trial; findings fed into Shared Rural Network policy
