Cities Today asked three city leaders from Europe about their approach to 5G and beyond.
What stage are you at with 5G in your city?
Petr Suška, Director of Smart Cities and Urban Data, Operátor ICT, Prague: Most 5G activities in Prague had previously been driven by the market. The City of Prague has more recently been seeking to play a more prominent role in this space with respect to ensuring equal access, coverage and value-generating services for citizens, businesses and visitors.
David Wilkins, Head of Smart City, Westminster City Council: To facilitate the rollout of 5G across the city, Westminster City Council has entered a concession agreement with Ontix, granting them the rights to deploy small cells on lamp columns to deliver improvements to mobile connectivity within Westminster.
Óskar J. Sandholt, Director, Service & Innovation, Reykjavík: In Reykjavik, multiple service providers have already established full 5G coverage in all neighbourhoods of the city. The city boasts a robust fibre infrastructure with two competing providers – one city-owned – offering services to every household and building in the area. This competitive telecom market and advanced infrastructure facilitated a swift rollout of 5G in Reykjavik and across most parts of the country.
How important is 5G rollout for you and what do you see as the key use cases?
Petr Suška, Prague: 5G rollout has been crucial in improving overall connectivity and generating new digital services across the city. Securing the private 5G network of the city (Mep-Net) has been one of the main goals in ensuring that potential cyberattacks and hacks can be averted. The city is considering forming a series of partnerships with the private sector to establish a new business model to expand and upgrade the current network. Furthermore, our experience shows that it is very important to assume a holistic approach and combine 5G connectivity and an integrated IoT network.
David Wilkins, Westminster: Data consumption is increasing exponentially and in order to maintain positive user experience the network infrastructure needs to keep up. I think 5G will really come into its own when low latency and high bandwidth are required for the solution. Areas like real-time image recognition that drives action has the potential to enable us to become more proactive when managing the city.
Óskar J. Sandholt, Reykjavík: Currently, 5G technology has not significantly impacted the functioning of Reykjavik services or operations, unlike the way 4G did. We are still waiting for innovative use cases to surface. 4G was a game-changer as it provided workers and the public with proper mobility by freeing them from needing Wi-Fi or CAT outlets. However, despite its promises to do so, I have yet to witness a similar revolution with 5G. I think 5G is now primarily useful for entertainment purposes, such as when a large crowd is streaming or communicating from the same location. So far, we have managed to address IoT data transfer for Reykjavik using fibre or low-bandwidth networks with no pressing cases pushing us into 5G data transfer.
What are the challenges with rolling out 5G?
Petr Suška, Prague: Finding the right model of collaboration with the private sector is key. There has been a pervasive view that 5G is exclusively a private-sector endeavour. Overcoming this perspective, particularly on the side of the municipality, by explaining benefits and framing 5G as critical infrastructure has been crucial to integrating the city in discussions and ultimately defining a strategy for 5G and 6G going forward.
David Wilkins, Westminster: One of the biggest challenges in relation to 5G deployments are Notice to Quit (NTQs) as a result of development. This results in a loss of macro sites leading to reduced coverage. At this point in time a 5G small cell alternative is not available due to the size and weight of the asset.
Óskar J. Sandholt, Reykjavík: Actually, we encountered very few obstacles in the 5G rollout. The city’s infrastructure is modern, and we have clear guidelines and rules regarding, for example, the placement of transmitters and such within the city landscape. As a result, we did not encounter any significant difficulties in this regard. Initially, we were concerned that the deployment of 5G would be sluggish due to a lack of use cases, but competition in the market resolved this issue for us.
Is 6G on your radar yet or is it too soon?
Petr Suška, Prague: 6G is definitely on our radar and we are looking for partners to better understand how to work with this new technology that has the potential to have an impact.
David Wilkins, Westminster: There is still so much untapped potential from previous ‘G’s, including 4G, so I would say it is a little bit too soon for us to build the hype around 6G.
Óskar J. Sandholt, Reykjavík: No, currently, we are not considering 6G technology. In my opinion, it is premature to discuss it when 5G has yet to reach its full potential. In fact, in many places around Europe and especially the USA, where the fibre infrastructure is inadequate, 5G is still not functioning optimally and will not until the infrastructure is modernised. Therefore, numerous issues must be resolved before a viable business plan for 6G can be formulated, particularly in cities where fibre infrastructure challenges must be addressed.