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A new report, published by O2, identifies how improved mobile connectivity, enabled by 5G, will update the way cities operate, making them smarter and creating tangible benefits for citizens and city councils.
5G networks are expected to provide more widespread coverage, cope better with heavier data loads and reserve the highest speeds for those devices needing it, enabling the creation of an integrated infrastructure that connects things: buildings, transport and utilities.
The report suggests that 5G will have numerous benefits, including improvements in telecare and telehealth imaging, 5G-enabled road systems and lower energy bills.
The healthcare sector will benefit, as use of 5G enables better responsiveness and improves telecare and telehealth imaging and data collection, aggregation and analysis. It permits the widescale adoption of high-quality telehealth video conferencing and digital health monitoring devices, and promotes the use of technology like accelerometers, which are found in most smartphones, turning them into a tool which alerts social care services.
The use of the technology will also enable cities to improve transport infrastructure, reducing time of commutes for citizens. By hardwiring 5G technology into a city’ s transport design and infrastructure, traffic and rail management systems can be upgraded to cope more efficiently with the increased demand.
The report also predicts that 5G technology will help smart energy grids become more robust, more responsive and have greater capacity to deal with increasing demands more efficiently. Retail is another sector that will benefit, as use of 5G will permit retailers and commercial businesses to use real-time mobile data to deliver a more personalised shopping experience to customers.
You can read the whole report here.