ENHANCING RURAL CONNECTIVITY, NEW WIRELESS OPPORTUNITIES AND DEPLOYMENT SCENARIOS
The wireless industry is gearing up for the introduction of several flavours of 5G. Some may argue that other than capacity increases for high traffic urban areas, Enhanced Mobile Broadband below 6GHz will not initially provide more than LTE-Advanced does today. Propagation challenges are likely to limit initial mmWave deployment to fixed wireless access and massive device connectivity is now supported by NB-IoT and numerous license free technologies.
So what does all this mean when it comes to 5G deployment for less densely populated regions of the world? Rural communities need connectivity, both fixed and mobile, for a variety of applications from agriculture to healthcare to education. Industries and homes alike need to be connected in order to prosper and thrive in a fast-moving world.
Recently, the FCC opted to go forward with an exploration of allocating $100 million for a “Connected Care Pilot Program” designed to deliver telehealth solutions with a focus on rural communities. Can we expect doctors and other health practitioners to treat patients remotely at home using video streaming and other forms of two-way live communications?
Will machine connectivity for next-generation sensors, cloud platforms, telematics, autonomous machines and various other technologies drive demand to connect globally scattered resources through cellular 5G and satellite?
This workshop will assess connectivity needs for rural and sparsely populated areas, explore use cases and identify verticals which may drive deployment of next generation 5G technologies.
January 29-31 2019, New Orleans ttps://www.iwpc.org/workshops/2019/1901/agenda.html
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