A Bristol company that designs millimetre-wave wireless technology for fast, fibre-like links between trains, base stations and other fixed equipment.
Blu Wireless designs wireless technology that carries large amounts of data at very high speed over short distances using millimetre waves, a part of the radio spectrum between 57 and 71 gigahertz. It began as a developer of chip designs, known as intellectual property, and has been developing complete modems and networking systems around them. Its HYDRA modem design gave equipment makers a route to multi-gigabit connections using unlicensed spectrum, and its patented system for railways links trackside equipment to trains with high speed, low delay and good security. It has described rail, city networks, 5G backhaul and private networks as target uses.
The company was founded in Bristol in 2009, according to a start-up directory. In its early years it chose Bristol for what its chief executive Henry Nurser described as its world-beating expertise in wireless communications and semiconductor design, and it has a working relationship with the University of Bristol. Nurser has said the UK is helping to deliver leading 5G and millimetre-wave technology. We did not find a published mission statement or list of values, so none is quoted here.
Blu Wireless is based in Bristol, with two Bristol addresses listed by Cambridge Wireless: University Gate East on Parkrow and a floor at 1 Temple Way. The company has said it works with customers and partners in the US, Japan, the UK and mainland Europe. Its railway system is being rolled out with South Western Railway in the UK and on the Caltrain commuter line in California, according to 2024 reporting. It also took part in a European 5G research project, 5G-XHaul, which ended with a demonstration of a high-speed wireless mesh through Bristol's historic centre with Bristol is Open and the University of Bristol.
A Cambridge Wireless profile says the company employs over 100 professional engineers, though that figure is undated, and early reporting described a team that grew from 7 to 17 people between 2013 and 2014. Reports from earlier years describe a team of chip designers and radio engineers, working alongside rail, telecoms and smart-city partners. Beyond that, company culture is not described in the public pages we read, so we do not make claims about it.
A company like this employs chip and digital signal-processing designers, radio-frequency engineers, embedded software developers, test and verification engineers, systems engineers who build and trial networks outdoors, product managers, and business development and customer teams. Its partnerships with railways, universities and city projects give a range of settings for the work. Students interested in wireless networks, electronics and how 5G is really built will find a good illustration of it here.
Website: www.bluwireless.com
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