QinetiQ has secured a £6.2 million contract from LastMile Communications Limited to develop a wireless transceiver system that will enable the high-speed delivery of local information through a network of wireless nodes placed in existing roadside furniture, including road signs, gantries and lamp posts. The contract represents part of an extended strategic development agreement between the two companies and follows the successful completion of an earlier £1.6 million deal where QinetiQ de-risked the technology that will underpin the new system.
The new contract will result in the full development of a 65Ghz communications sub-system by QinetiQ that will initially enable point-to-point high speed communications from wireless node to wireless node, removing the requirement for expensive underground fibre optic cabling. The intention is then to develop further wireless node systems that enable roadside-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-roadside and vehicle-to-vehicle networking. Last Mile’s system allows information to be stored on individual wireless nodes, rather than at the centre of a network, thereby simplifying the process of information access.
Once commissioned, LastMile expects these systems to allow retailers and other commercial services like hotels, restaurants and shops to communicate special offers and useful information instantly and very cheaply to all motorists within a given radius of a specific site, extending the current pedestrian model enabled by LastMile today. Users will be able to access this localised information via a range of mobile devices.
Welcoming the deal, Ian Makin, QinetiQ’s business manager for the project, said: “This contract illustrates QinetiQ’s ability to exploit our wireless and signal processing expertise cost effectively and in a highly commercial application. I am delighted that, having successfully delivered the first phase of this exciting project, we are going to continue working with LastMile towards full product development and volume production.”
LastMile CEO, Antony Abell, said: “This technology provides a means of delivering significantly higher value wireless broadband networks and benefits from added flexibility and reduced infrastructure costs. It also represents the basis of completely new business and revenue models for operators. We are very pleased to have strengthened our partnership with QinetiQ and are confident of a successful future for this system.”
QinetiQ will initially deliver in the region of one hundred pre-production prototypes that will allow LastMile to conduct a pilot trial of the system. Under the terms of the agreement, QinetiQ is then responsible for supplying an initial production run of some tens of thousand units, during which time the technology will be matured and costs reduced.
About LastMile Communications
Founded in October 1999 and based in Exeter, Devon, UK, LastMile Communications Limited conceived and developed two key technologies in the field of telemetrics and in vehicle information systems. Its main products are WDirect, the transceiver technology fitting inside of lamp posts and street signs, and MagicBook, the reception and information management technology. LastMile Communications hold key patents that are required for a global, microwave beacon, roadside based telematics system. QinetiQ is an investor in LastMile Communications and currently holds circa 1.5% of the issued share capital.
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