Birmingham, its residents and visitors, are set for a mobile boost after Virgin Media O2 and Ontix deployed small cells on the city's streetlights to enhance connectivity, it was reported.
Virgin Media O2 customers will see a boost in their 4G mobile service in the UK's second city as the small cells go live in key sites across the city.
The deployment was enabled with the support of Birmingham City Council and WM5G, who signed an Open Access Agreement with Ontix allowing them to deploy its mobile solution onto assets from a base of over 90,000 streetlights throughout the city.
The first sites are now live in Bath Row and Islington Row, improving capacity for commuters arriving at Five Ways station, which receives over 1 million visitors annually, and for thousands who spend time at the markets and events in Edgbaston Village.
More deployments are planned in coming months, said Ontix, and Virgin Media O2 customers will see a significant boost to their service in other key areas, including entertainment destination Broad Street, which attracts 23 million visitors each year, and the heart of the business quarter on Snow Hill Queensway.
Cllr Saima Suleman, cabinet member for digital, culture, heritage and tourism at Birmingham City Council said: "We welcome the investment made by Virgin Media O2 and Ontix to improve the mobile connectivity for our city.
"This promises to improve the mobile experience in the busiest areas at peak times in Birmingham and will make a significant difference for our local businesses and residents and builds on our Digital Birmingham commitment to position the city as a leading international digital city."
Richard Williams, director of acquisition for Ontix, added: "I’m delighted that Ontix has been able to become the first Neutral Host company to bring VMO2 small cells to Birmingham. As someone that grew up in the city, Birmingham holds a very special place in my heart, and I’m delighted to have played a small part in securing such a significant investment in new digital infrastructure for the region
"We’re proud to have worked closely with Virgin Media O2 to complete a streamlined and cost-effective end to end delivery of this project, and are grateful for the ongoing support of Birmingham City Council and WM5G for the Open Access Agreement that allows us to improve network capacity in key areas of the city."
Rhys Enfield, director of infrastructure acceleration at WM5G, added: "The need for fast, reliable internet connections and increased capacity has never been greater.
"Small cells have a key role to play providing secure, reliable mobile networks but the administrative process typically takes more than 12 months to complete.
"The Open Access Agreements helped us bring this down to just under two months and we’re delighted to now see the first small cells going live."
Ontix is a next-generation infrastructure-as-a-service provider, which says it is disrupting the business model for delivering lightning-fast connectivity.