Innovate UK funded R&D, led by Aerix
MOSAIC-5G: making British 5G work as one
Eight UK organisations are joining their 5G technology into a single network that goes live in hours rather than weeks, carries far more devices on the same airwaves, and is managed from one screen.
£4.3m
programme
£3.1m+
Innovate UK funding
8
UK organisations
18
months, Aug 2026 to Jan 2028
3
real-world test sites
Great British components, not yet a British network
The UK designs and builds genuinely world-class 5G technology: radios, cores, signal processing and management software. What it has lacked is a way to buy that technology as a whole. Each component works on its own; combining several vendors’ kit into a network people can rely on has taken so much specialist engineering that most projects have been too complex to catch on, and buyers have defaulted to a single overseas supplier instead.
MOSAIC-5G, short for Multi-vendor Open System Architecture for Integrated Connectivity, does that integration work once, properly, so it does not have to be repeated at every site. The result is a single standalone private 5G network built from UK technology, tested continuously from the first day of the project rather than bolted together at the end.
“Deploying private 5G today means stitching together fragmented vendor tools. MOSAIC-5G will prove that UK technology can do better: a complete, sovereign, multi-vendor network that goes live in hours and is managed from one screen. It’s a statement of what the UK’s 5G ecosystem can deliver when it works as one.”
What it means for people who use 5G
Most of the work in MOSAIC-5G happens where nobody sees it: in interfaces, test plans and signal-processing code. The effect is felt by everyone on the network, from the operator on a factory floor to someone checking a map on the high street.
More people and devices, without the slowdown
Noema Signal Labs’ award-winning NL-COMM signal processing can more than double how much data a network carries over the same airwaves, and support over 300% more connected devices at the same quality of service. A packed event, a factory floor full of robots or a busy street at lunchtime stays usable when everyone connects at once.
Coverage that arrives sooner
Automated, cloud-native deployment and one-click SIM provisioning mean a new site goes live in hours rather than weeks. For the people who work or live there, that is the difference between waiting for a project to finish and simply getting a signal.
Problems fixed before you notice them
Every part of the network is managed from one screen, and Spry Fox Networks’ QuantumPath tests it continuously in the way a user would. Faults show up on the operator’s dashboard rather than in a complaint, and AI agents can help diagnose and fix them.
Better signal indoors
Antevia’s fronthaul multiplexor lets dozens of small radios behave as a single cell, over fibre or ordinary Cat6a data cabling. Good indoor coverage in offices, hospitals and warehouses becomes cheaper and quicker to install.
Faster, more private local services
AttoCore’s 5G core can break traffic out at the edge, so data for local machines, cameras and robots stays on site. That means lower latency for the things that need it, and information that does not leave the building unless it has to.
More from the same airwaves
Getting more capacity through smarter algorithms, rather than more spectrum, more antennas or more power, keeps both the cost and the environmental footprint down. Automated deployment also cuts the site visits and van miles behind every network.
Built in Britain. Every layer of the network, from the radios to the management software, comes from UK companies. That gives organisations a credible alternative to single overseas vendors, and gives the country a more resilient supply chain for critical communications.
How it fits together
A mobile network is built in layers: the radios that talk to phones and devices, the core that routes their traffic, and the software that keeps it all running. MOSAIC-5G takes a UK component for each layer and makes them work as one system.
Spry Fox Networks acts as the systems integrator, defining the interfaces between every part before development starts and testing the joins continuously across all three sites.
“Assured interoperability is the difference between a demo and a product. By testing integration continuously from day one across three real-world sites, we’ll give enterprises the confidence that a multi-vendor UK solution simply works.”
Management and assurance
- Antevia iConn: one screen for every vendor’s equipment, with AI-agent (MCP) operations
- Aerix management and service assurance platform
- Spry Fox Networks QuantumPath: continuous service assurance
5G core
- AttoCore 5G standalone core with edge break-out
Radio
- Antevia 5G Shift private network: indoor radios and fronthaul
- RANsemi UK-designed outdoor radios and acceleration hardware
- Noema Signal Labs NL-COMM advanced MIMO processing
Integration and testing
Spry Fox Networks as systems integrator, with Liverpool 5G leading governance and security, across the Reading, Bath and London sites.
Proven in three real places
A network that only works in a lab is a demonstration. MOSAIC-5G will be validated where it has to cope with real users, real machines and real weather.
Industrial robotics field trial
With Extend Robotics, Reading
A live strawberry-packing operation where hundreds of devices, including robots streaming video and receiving real-time control instructions, share the network at once. This is where Wi-Fi and 4G have struggled.
Live outdoor network across Bath
Aerix, with Bath & North East Somerset Council
Aerix’s 18-cell outdoor 5G network, operated with the Council, carries live traffic from real users across the city. It proves the system over a wide area, outdoors, in all weathers.
Controlled lab testing
Digital Catapult, London
A lab where each vendor’s component can be tested against the others under controlled conditions, so the integration is checked continuously rather than once at the end.
Images are illustrative rather than photographs of the project sites.
The consortium
Eight UK organisations covering every layer of the network, with Extend Robotics as use-case partner. Several already work together on live networks; MOSAIC-5G turns those working relationships into one product.
Aerix
Project lead and network operator: the Bath network, deployment automation, SIM provisioning and management.
Antevia Networks
5G Shift private network radios and fronthaul, and the iConn unified management platform.
Spry Fox Networks
Systems integrator, and QuantumPath continuous service assurance.
Noema Signal Labs
University of Surrey spin-out behind the NL-COMM advanced MIMO technology.
AttoCore
5G standalone core with edge break-out.
RANsemi
UK-designed outdoor radios and acceleration hardware.
Liverpool 5G
Project governance, coordination and security architecture.
Bath & North East Somerset Council
Host of the live outdoor testbed across Bath.
Use-case partner: Extend Robotics, who provide the packing facility and robot fleet for the industrial trial.
Shared with the rest of the industry
The partners keep their own products, but the evidence the project produces will be published so that other UK companies and network buyers can build on it rather than start from scratch.
- Reference architectures for multi-vendor private 5G
- Interoperability test methods and results
- Performance benchmarks, including advanced MIMO against conventional systems
- Deployment guides and automated deployment tooling
Timeline
August 2026
Project starts. Interfaces between every component are specified before development begins.
Throughout
Staged, continuous integration testing in the lab, in Bath and at the robotics trial, rather than one big integration event at the end.
January 2028
Project completes with a validated multi-vendor network and published results.
At time of writing the project has just begun. We will add results here as the integration work lands.
Follow the project
If you run a site that could benefit from private 5G, build 5G technology yourself, or want to hear how MOSAIC-5G is getting on, we would like to hear from you.
Media enquiries: Peter Gradwell, peter.gradwell@aerix.uk
MOSAIC-5G is funded by Innovate UK, the UK’s innovation agency, under the SNPN 5G Assured Integration competition (project 10196771).