The Scotland 5G Centre has officially launched its Innovation Hub in Ayrshire in partnership with telco Vodafone and sustainable solutions provider Halo Innovation.

Located at Halo’s Kilmarnock HQ, the S5GConnect Innovation hub is intended for businesses to prototype, design and trial goods and services over a 5G mobile private network (MPN).

The hub will offer a scaled-down and isolated data network, offering 5G data services and helping business customers deliver new applications and services using Vodafone 5G connectivity.

Specialist staff will help companies to develop, prototype and test real-world, 5G-powered applications and use cases.

In a statement announcing the opening, Sharon Neely, business engagement manager for S5GConnect Halo Kilmarnock said that businesses will have free access to the network to “explore and adopt” new digital opportunities.

The hub claims that benefits to 5G access include increased productivity, decreased downtimes, enhanced customer experience, digital security and reductions in cost and carbon footprint.

At the launch, businesses were invited to take part in several demos and one of the hub’s founding partners, the University of Glasgow, showed how enterprises can remotely monitor room capacity and desk occupancy which, when combined with AI can gather data on peak occupancy times to save energy and reduce carbon emissions.

Digital Barriers, a local security company, also showcased the combined power of 5G and AI in an object classification and facial recognition demonstration.

Kim Moran-Hogg, head of Scotland and Northern Ireland, Vodafone Business, added that the testbed would ensure that Scottish businesses and public bodies have access to next-generation technologies, powered by state-of-the-art private networks.

Last month, India kickstarted its 5G operations with its two largest telecoms Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel rolling out services in a number of Indian cities.

In July, the UK and South Korea also joined forces to develop a new research scheme to accelerate 5G and 6G development.