The UK’s leading telco BT has made the bold claim that only private 5G can deliver smart and flexible manufacturing, as part of the industrial IoT (IIoT). BT, via its EE mobile arm, has been lead technology partner for the Worcestershire 5G Testbed (W5G), which now claims to be the UK’s first live private 5G network. Using equipment from Ericsson at Bosch’s factory in the western city of Worcester, and the nearby Malvern Hills Science Park, it employs network slicing technology from Zeetta Networks for use with private and public networks currently under construction at the National Composites Centre (NCC) in Bristol. Building on the first set of UK 5G testbeds and trials, the expansion of the Worcester project will…