In short: Jaguar Land Rover's Solihull plant went from legacy wired control systems to a live private 5G network in three months, without stopping production. The deployment, delivered by BT and Ericsson through the West Midlands 5G Innovation Region, proves private 5G works in brownfield factories, not just purpose-built greenfield sites.
Key Takeaways
- Brownfield is the real test — most UK factories are decades old with embedded wired systems, and JLR Solihull proves private 5G can be retrofitted without a production shutdown
- Three months from start to live — the deployment timeline challenges the assumption that private 5G is a multi-year capital programme
- West Midlands is becoming a proving ground — the 5G Innovation Region is generating real-world evidence that de-risks private 5G for the rest of UK manufacturing
In a nutshell
Why Brownfield Matters More Than Greenfield
Most private 5G case studies come from new factories — purpose-built plants where the network was designed into the building from day one. These are impressive, but they do not answer the question most UK manufacturers are actually asking: can we do this in the factory we already have?
The UK's manufacturing base is overwhelmingly brownfield. Plants that have been producing for decades, with control systems wired in when the building was built and production lines reconfigured around existing cable runs. Ripping out and replacing is simply not an option when the line runs three shifts a day.
JLR's Solihull plant has been building vehicles since 1945. The deployment demonstrated that if private 5G can work here — in an 80-year-old factory with decades of embedded infrastructure — it can work in most of the UK's industrial estate.
What BT and Ericsson Deployed
BT and Ericsson deployed private 5G infrastructure on dedicated spectrum, designed to coexist with JLR's existing wired systems during a transition period rather than requiring a single cutover.
Three elements stand out. The 5G infrastructure was installed around running production lines with no production downtime. The project was completed in approximately three months from initial survey to live network, demonstrating that private 5G can be delivered on timescales manufacturing operations actually plan around. And the network replaced wired connections for operational technology systems — not a WiFi convenience layer, but production-grade connectivity where reliability is non-negotiable.
However, it is worth acknowledging the trade-offs here: JLR is a large organisation with dedicated spectrum access and the capital to invest in a proper deployment, and the economics for a smaller manufacturer with 50 employees and a single production hall are a fundamentally different proposition. The three-month timeline is encouraging, but we should not assume it transfers directly to every brownfield site without careful qualification.
What It Enables on the Factory Floor
Automotive production lines are reconfigured regularly for model changes, variant introductions, and process improvements. When every station, sensor, and controller is cabled, each reconfiguration involves re-routing physical connections — time, cost, and risk.
With private 5G, stations can be repositioned without re-cabling. New sensor points can be added without pulling cable. Test equipment can follow the vehicle down the line rather than being fixed at a single point. The network also supports dense IoT deployments — vibration sensors, torque monitoring, vision inspection — without the ceiling that wired infrastructure imposes. Importantly, this flexibility has knock-on effects for how quickly new models can be introduced, which in automotive manufacturing is increasingly a competitive differentiator.
What This Proves for UK Manufacturing
The JLR deployment addresses the three objections most UK manufacturers raise. It works in brownfield — an 80-year-old factory not designed for wireless. It can be deployed fast — three months sits inside a single financial quarter. And it replaces legacy wired systems rather than just sitting alongside them.
The UK has approximately 130,000 manufacturing enterprises. The vast majority operate from existing buildings. If private 5G required a new factory, it would remain a technology for the few. Solihull demonstrates it is a technology for the many — and that the deployment timeline and disruption are far less than most manufacturers assume. The West Midlands Combined Authority's 5G Innovation Region is therefore generating precisely the kind of real-world evidence that de-risks the decision for everyone else.
The factory of the future does not require a new building. It requires a new network in the building you already have.