5G in rural areas: Connecting the clever countrysides

Ericsson organized the 5G in Rural Areas: Clever Countrysides webinar today. The participants were Bill Chotiner, VP and CTO Regional Carriers, Ericsson North America, Peter Linder, Head of 5G Marketing, Ericsson North America, and David Zylka, CTO, Carolina West Wireless. Dr. Aleks Krotoski was the host of Ericsson UnBoxed Office Social Series.

Dr. Aleks Krotoski said we are going to have a conversation around 5G in rural communities. How are you all trying to include the rural areas? They need 5G, if not, more, than the urban areas.

Digital divide

Bill Chotiner, VP and CTO, Regional Carriers, Ericsson North America, said: "We have a clear digital divide between the city and the country. Will 5G widen the divide or will it bring all together? I believe that 5G will bring it all together. We have seen that Covid-19 has put pressure on everyone. In rural areas, many children could not do their school homework in several cases, as they did not have broadband. It is perhaps, easier in the cities because you have broadband, and there was just the issue of moving from the office to the home."

Peter Linder, Head of 5G Marketing, Ericsson North America, said that access to the rural communities in the US is scattered. He said: "We have a third, that have do not have access to broadband. Very few have fixed broadband at home, at 63%. Access to mobile broadband is 71%. In the low-income households, it is perhaps, even worse.

"If this is the situation at the starting front, and you put education on top of that, it is an important gap to close for the K-12 students right now. You educate the children now for the first 9-12 years, and they are absorbing college education in the digital domain. For the rural communities, when the people get to the 20s, it is hard to get them back. We need educated people in the countryside and the cities in the future. This is a central question for the digital divide."

Regarding a brain drain for the lack of connectivity and remote working, Linder added that there are knowledge-intensive industries. We have broadband for the home. In the rural areas, the level of digital professions did not take off or develop quickly. With this crisis, they need to think: we can live in the countryside and do the digital profession. There should be some digital infrastructure for me to consider places worth moving to.

Farming communities badly affected

On the subject of farming communities faring, Linder added that the cost of building the infrastructure is increasing. Market forces drive the development of broadband. For these rural communities, you also need to give incentives to get investments taking place, in the first instance.

The farm roads were not great, so they can go and shop on the weekend. We also need a distribution system for the farm goods, foods etc., such as going from the countryside into the city. Getting those kinds of perspectives for broadband will help a lot. It will take a village to close the digital divide.

This issue came out when Ericsson was discussing smart cities. The problems like smart cities are too much for a countryside. They have their own challenges. We will need the same infrastructure for remote education, remote health, connecting farms, recreation areas, and outdoors.

David Zylka, CTO, Carolina West Wireless, said: "One of the key components of the clever community or smart cities is connectivity. Over 1/3rds of the US households don't have broadband connectivity. It forms the basis of the digital divide. The digital divide is much more clear to the people as they try to conduct digital business, remote connectivity and WFH. It all starts with providing connectivity. We have to get smart about how we deploy networks and where do we deploy them, in order to make rural America smart."

He added that Carolina West is in the Appalachian Mountains. It is a rugged terrain, and there is a challenge to provide cost-effective coverage to every town, community and household within the footprint. It is a very scenic country, but very difficult to provide coverage to every area.

5G in rural areas

On the topic of how 5G can help rural areas, Zylka said 5G capitalizes on what you have done with 4G. It enhances the capacities, connectivity and devices, especially, IoT. There are a lot of goals associated with 5G. People get exposed to high-quality broadband access. They look for the same type of service when they are working, vacationing, or just connecting with people. With 5G, the level and the quality of service also rises. We need to provide these people with equivalent service. Connectivity is so critical to make cities smart.

Linder added that you might ask: with 4G, isn't there enough for us? These are the things that contribute to the digital divide. Eg., there was an earlier mindset regarding dial-up. These are the kinds of things that lead to the digital divide. If you buy a phone similar to a city guy, why would you want a network that is worse? They would feel: we don't want to have anything worse than what folks in the city have! That's the only way we can compete in the digital economy.

Criteria for clever countrysides

Dr. Aleks Krotoski asked the panel regarding the criteria you look for clever countrysides. Chotiner said that 4G provided Internet connectivity, wirelessly. However, 5G provides Internet that is much more flexible, better and delivers information faster. There are greater throughput rates. When we are thinking of delivering information faster, we can do that with 5G. Anything that you are building today, you look for 5G compatibility.

In the future, there will be new services and new demands. Ultimately, people will expect the same type of connectivity. Places everywhere, should be able to provide that type of broadband. There should be stable connectivity in cities and countryside.

Pain points

Regarding the pain points associated with 5G networks, Bill Chotiner felt that one of the challenges is the cost of building the network, and hitting all those locations. There is also the cost of maintaining these networks. There is time needed to build the networks, and the fibre networks.

In reality, it is taking many years to roll them out. You should also be able to offer other services on the network. As we start to enhance the network capabilities, we look at evolving it to new areas. We also need to build a future-proof network, as the use cases and demands evolve.

5G economically feasible?

On the topic of 5G being economically feasible in rural areas, Chotiner felt that the cost of building a network is more feasible in rural areas. FWA is about providing broadband to the homes. We are seeing increasing demand for broadband, greater speed. Operators need to be providing new services. The IP-type connectivity in the house enables a lot of new services. Be it, offering TV or alarm services, etc.

The operators would need radio spectrum to be able to provide all that. 5G has created a lot of flexibility, diversity and advancement. MIMO is a game changer in terms of delivering more capacity out of the network. We are also talking about beamforming to the home. We have all the big brains of the world looking at the technology and wondering: how do we take it, where do we take it, etc.

We also see a significant drop in prices of equipment in the households. We are seeing a lot of stimulus programs. There is a global need of getting broadband to everybody. Regarding 5G in itself, you can deploy networks, but you don't deploy every tool in every area.

Design for future

Dr. Krotoski felt that FWA is one of the first use cases. How do you design for the future? Bill Chotiner agreed that FWA was one of the first use cases. When you look at IoT, it is connecting things to each other. There are sensors too. However, that's been around. IoT has been around for a longer time, and has become more advanced and mainstream in recent years. For example, soda machines have been connected for a long time. You can now have wireless production facilities, wireless healthcare, etc.

David Zylka said that they are seeing a lot of people are wanting to be connected -- to services, platforms, etc. It all starts with basic connectivity. It is also about educating the customers as to what the networks bring to them. Once Covid-19 happened, the uptake of fixed wireless went up over 300%. It helped us to communicate with our customers. It sparked a dialog with them. We told them: here are the features, services and opportunities for you to consider. FWA is a critical component. Another is tethering your handset or user device. People are saying that they need connectivity. We have the tools and the capability to connect these people.

International rollouts

On the topic of the international rollout of 5G in rural areas, Peter Linder said that if you look at the rural areas in the Scandinavia countries, there is much better interest to use 5G. So, we are replacing copper wires. Instead of upgrading the 4G network and the fixed wireless, there is just one 5G network infrastructure.

India, perhaps, has a significantly smaller amount of fixed lines in place. There, broadband has been a mobile phenomenon. The average data consumption in India is higher than the USA. There, the mobile is so strong, it is the logical platform to build from.

In some other countries, the outskirts of the towns can be challenging. Houses are separated and the cost of building is higher. There are highways, connecting cities. Some have fibre, and some don't. You either use fibre or microwave technology for bridging the capacity. The real rural areas or farmlands are also there. They present problems and opportunities. It all starts with having a vision of being wanting to be a part of the digital community of the future. The rural community needs to use this opportunity to be a part of the future.

Zylka added that when you look at telecom in general, the urban areas are covered by the large companies. That makes complete economic sense. As you move to the rural areas and countrysides, the companies and communities have struggled. How do you bring advanced technologies to these areas? The key to that is the government. They should be funding, and there should be people There are well-organized entities who are also helping the government with business cases.

We need to help them to do that. We also need to decide how and where do we build our networks. You go out to the communities and gather support. We ask them the question: if we build this network, will you sign up for this? Gone are the days where we build a network, and hope that people will sign up. You need to ask: we are building this network, and will you sign up? The answer is yes, in a lot of cases.

Cost demand

Finally, there was a question on the cost demand. Bill Chotiner explained that with 5G, you need to be smart about how you build it. There are high-band networks being deployed in cities. Can we deploy them in rural areas? There may be schools. However, you don't deploy them everywhere. You need to think about where you are building it.

You are building the network for the future. You are modernizing. The technology has evolved quite a bit. They are putting in 5G equipment, waiting to turn it on, when the time comes. FWA is a compelling case, for now. Other new cases will also pop up. He would rather be betting on 5G, looking forward. Linder added that the rural communities play a very important role in all of this.