#BEST #NETWORK #AND #5G

Today, I had the honour to present at Telecom Insights on 5G. 5G will start a new era in mobile communications. It will provide higher speeds, better coverage and more capacity – needed to handle the growth in traffic and connected devices - but it will also make the network more dynamic: able to adapt to specific needs of specific users.

5G The Hague

We have signed a partnership with the city of The Hague to explore what 5G can bring for the city and its citizens – and for us to learn what is possible. In the past months we prepared our network in The Hague for 5G. We have also tested what 5G can do: we use test licenses for the three 5G pioneer-bands: 700 MHz, 3.5 GHz and 26 GHz. Of course, we will not stop at The Hague: we will have 5G everywhere by the end of 2020.

5G requires new spectrum: the auction for 700 MHz is expected somewhere in 2020, the availability of the other bands is unknown. However, we cannot wait: for 5G we need all the bands to become available as soon as possible.

5G will be the enabler for further digitisation of The Netherlands in many areas. I touch upon a few:

E-health:

The costs of healthcare continue to grow, because people live longer. This is a growing concern for policy makers, in particular in the Western world. E-health will make health care more efficient by monitoring people remotely and taking action when necessary. This requires excellent and reliable data connections everywhere – this is where 5G comes in: 5G allows millions of sensors to monitor and control remotely.

5G can do much more. An example I particularly like is Project March from TU Delft: an exoskeleton that allows people with spinal injuries to walk again. Now in laboratory settings, but the aim is to make it work anywhere. This is a challenge: every step requires a lot of computing power – more than can be carried by the exoskeleton. But putting computing power in a remote datacenter will not work: however small, the latency in the connections would make it hard for the person in the skeleton to move. So we are exploring 5G connectivity and mobile edge computing to ensure that the person in the skeleton can move swiftly and safely everywhere.

Transport: 

Our roads get clogged and investing in more roads will no longer help. We need to manage traffic smarter way to avoid that we will come to a stand-still. A nice example is the smart parking solution tested in Scheveningen: “Spotten”. Connected sensors measure where free parking spaces are available and steer to a free slot efficiently.

Environmental monitoring: 

Nobody in The Netherlands will have missed the discussion on air pollution, in particular nitrogen deposits. Knowing how much is deposited where and from what source is essential to ensure that we can live healthily in our country. Deploying much more sensors will help: and 5G will enable them to transmit their data in real-time, thus providing decision makers with the right information to decide. 

Infrastructure:

Our infrastructure has been expanded a lot in the past decades, much of it using concrete. Concrete is a great material, but vulnerable to corrosion, so maintenance is crucial. But finding out where to maintain what bridge is cumbersome: it requires drilling holes to see the condition of the concrete– which takes time and weaken the construction. 5G provides better solutions: with connected sensors in the concrete the bridge can be monitored remotely, so maintenance can be done when needed and accidents can be prevented.

Imagine what is possible

I have only shared a few examples of what is possible with 5G. Most of it we don’t even know today. But many smart people out there are building smart solutions, like the guys of project March. We like to connect all of them with the best network and the best connectivity possible. 5G allows up to 1 million connections per km2. That is 425 billion for The Netherlands. Imagine what we can do with that.