The Sonic Labs facility will be run by Ofcom and tech innovation agency Digital Catapult, and has received £1m in government support to carry out real-world testing.
The government hopes it will help to build a more secure supply chain which is less reliant on a small number of multinational suppliers and more accessible for new market entrants.
While Huawei was once one of the primary providers of 5G infrastructure, its alleged close links to the Chinese government led the UK to ban its technology from the networks.
In January 2020, it was given the option of playing a limited role in the UK’s 5G infrastructure, although this was later rolled back with networks told to remove all traces of the firm’s tech by 2027 at the latest.
Sonic Labs will be based in London and Brighton and will enable telecoms equipment manufacturers to examine how their kit behaves in a fully interoperable, technology-neutral mobile network
Digital infrastructure minister Matt...