• BT is demonstrating 5G network slicing at the Royal Welsh Show to support mobile payments, livestreaming and content uploads
• The four-day crowd gives BT a live testbed for slicing before it opens the service to paying customers later this summer
The fact
BT has deployed 5G network slicing at the Royal Welsh Show in Builth Wells, Wales. The deployment supports mobile payment systems for Welsh food and drink companies Radnor Hills and Fire and Flank, as well as livestreaming and content uploads by show staff. The event typically attracts up to 250,000 visitors over four days.
For the demonstration, the operator upgraded the showground and a nearby mast with 5G+ coverage ahead of its planned launch of customer slicing services later this summer. BT said network slicing reserves capacity on its shared 5G network for selected applications and is designed to protect those connections when general traffic increases.
The assessment
Network slicing lets BT give selected applications protected capacity on shared 5G infrastructure when crowds overwhelm the general network. At the show, that means payment terminals and media uploads keep working while visitors stream and scroll.
For BTW readers, the demonstration is a proof of concept, not a service. BT still needs to define which applications qualify, how slices are provisioned and whether it can guarantee performance at peak traffic. The company has not published results from the show, so the deployment demonstrates configuration rather than performance. Whether this becomes a repeatable event-based product depends on BT's commercial launch later this summer.
What to watch
BT's commercial launch later this summer needs to identify which applications are eligible, how slices are provisioned and whether the service includes performance commitments. Performance data from the show would provide evidence of how the protected payment and media connections performed at peak traffic.