Telecoms spoke with Professor Dimitra Simeonidou ahead of her appearance at this year’s 5G Expo Global to learn about her recent work, her perspective on 5G rollout, and the social impact of the technology.
Simeonidou’s distinguished career spans industry and academia. Early on, she led the team at Alcatel Submarine Networks that delivered the first transatlantic optical network. She later co-founded two companies, Ilotron and Zeetta Networks, and has served as Professor of High-Performance Networks at the University of Bristol.
She now directs the Smart Internet Lab at the University of Bristol, a multidisciplinary facility of roughly 200 experts working across wireless and optical technologies. The lab’s research covers the Internet of Things, smart cities, artificial intelligence, and related areas.
“We focus on end-to-end networking, service creation, and delivery,” Simeonidou explains. “For both hardware and software design, we work closely with vertical sectors such as smart cities, transport, the vehicle economy, and public safety.”
One major initiative led by the Smart Internet Lab is INITIATE, a distributed project that links advanced facilities at five networking hubs across the UK: the universities of Bristol, Lancaster, Edinburgh, King’s College London, and Digital Catapult in London.
INITIATE’s interconnected testbeds enable the large-scale experimentation needed for next-generation internet research. By combining cutting-edge infrastructure with domain expertise, the project supports innovations that change how people communicate and interact with devices and services.
A key component of INITIATE is the 5GEx exchange, which physically connects testbeds at their aggregation points and allows experimenters and entrepreneurs to instantiate, monitor, and terminate end-to-end network services.
“The exchange links the testbeds intelligently,” Simeonidou says. “For example, if researchers want to run broad experiments on pollution monitoring or study nationwide transport patterns, we can share resources across different labs and testbeds—scaling from local deployments to national trials.”
“This approach allows us to gather and compare data and services across multiple sites, revealing commonalities and differences in smart deployments across the country.”
Last year the UK government, together with industry partners, committed £100 million to create the Bristol Digital Futures Institute.
“The institute brings together engineers, computer scientists, social scientists, anthropologists, and economists to co-create and co-design future digital technologies,” Simeonidou explains.
“A major focus is the socio-technical side of connectivity and 5G—how to drive technology creation while transforming the sector responsibly. We consider responsible innovation, sustainability, business models, societal consent, trust, and privacy, aiming to make the future digital economy more inclusive.”
Simeonidou says she’s impressed by the speed of the 5G rollout so far, which she believes has progressed faster than expected. However, she notes wider adoption is just beginning as people buy 5G-capable phones and connect to networks that are still evolving; the technology’s full potential remains ahead.
The UK government’s decision to permit limited use of Huawei equipment in national 5G networks was a significant announcement. The vendor is restricted to a minority presence of no more than 35 percent in each access network, and operators like BT have indicated substantial costs in response to the ruling.
Asked whether the decision was the right call and whether it will affect rollout timelines, Simeonidou says, “I think the UK government made a sensible choice considering security concerns. Could it delay mobile rollout? Potentially, yes—because removing a major vendor from parts of the network has practical consequences.”
She adds that the long-term impact should be limited. “I don’t believe this will hold the UK back significantly in the long run. Revolutionary industry applications will begin to emerge in a couple of years, and by then other vendors are likely to have stepped up to fill any gaps in infrastructure.”
When asked what excites her most about future connectivity, Simeonidou highlights localised, democratised networks.
“I’d like to see schools operating their own networks to deliver tailored services to students,” she says. “I want manufacturing plants, transport companies, ports, and airports to have that capability too—so organisations can run their own mobile services and democratise connectivity.”
Simeonidou will expand on these themes at 5G Expo Global in London, taking place 17–18 March. On the first day she will present a talk titled “Putting societal needs first with 5G.” On the second day she will join a panel discussion, “The new world of connectivity; 5G and the future,” with other industry leaders.
Interested in hearing industry leaders discuss use cases and real-world deployments? Attend the co-located IoT Tech Expo, Blockchain Expo, AI & Big Data Expo, Cyber Security & Cloud Expo, and 5G Expo World Series events to explore the evolving future of enterprise technology.