Vodafone launches UK’s first commercial standalone 5G network with Coventry University

Vodafone is helping Coventry University transform teaching and deliver immersive and interactive remote learning through 5G for the first time.

Healthcare students will be able to use virtual reality and augmented reality to explore the human body like never before – from the intricacies of the brain to following red blood cells as they course through veins.

Their experience is responsive and immersive wherever they are, thanks to the ultra-low latency of Vodafone’s 5G network.

A professor can access any part of the body during a lesson, make specific points to students – with no lag – go back over any sections the students need more information on and answer their questions in real-time.

While in the past, professors could only give a tour in a linear sequence, using pre-recorded materials, 5G makes lectures much more flexible and interactive and boosts retention outside the classroom.

“I can put the headset on and 5G allows the learner to access high-resolution images and videos remotely, anywhere in the world, and [they] are able to ask questions in real time,” says Dr Natasha Taylor, an associate professor at Coventry University’s Faculty of Health and Life Sciences.

According to Dr Taylor, this will allow her to educate her students “at a level we’ve never been able to before”.

5G delivers brand new opportunities for Coventry University

The transformative powers of 5G have also been deployed in the University’s Disruptive Media Learning Lab and National Transport Design Centre to support its innovative teaching and learning.

The 5G stand-alone network works completely independently of the 4G network and has its own core architecture in place, the first so called 5G Standalone Network in the UK that has gone live. This new architecture enables a set of technological capabilities not possible before, such a network slicing and multi-access edge computing.