5G Technology

Part of 2. Questions to the Leader of the House and Chief Whip (in respect of her portfolio responsibilities) – in the Senedd at 3:05 pm on 6 December 2017.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 3:05, 6 December 2017

I'll be consulting on a new—. Sorry, it would helpful if I found the right question, wouldn't it, really.

We're doing quite a lot in 5G technology in Wales. We've been looking quite a lot through the city deals at developing some good test-bed pilots for 5G technology and also in the new park, the automotive park, that we've talked about. We're also using it as an adjunct to fibre broadband to see what we can do with combination technologies, and a very large part of this will be what the UK Government does with the spectrum sales. So, we'll be making a lot of representations to the UK that they shouldn't regard 5G as a cash cow, but should actually think about what part of infrastructure it might play in public roll-out of some of the new artificial intelligence technologies, particularly autonomous vehicles and so on. So, there's a lot of work to be done in ensuring that we get the right exploitative benefit, and that the UK Government actually steps up to the mark and perceives 5G, as I say, not as a cash cow, but as a very serious public infrastructure resource.