Fibre or 5G? A bit of both is best for rural broadband

Much of the coverage relating to the poor quality of broadband in rural areas tends to present it as an issue which ranks Ireland among the world’s most backward nations. The evidence doesn’t support that case, however, and most countries with relatively low overall population densities tend to suffer from the same problem. And that includes the richest and most technologically advanced.

In 2018 the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) reported that 98 per cent of urban-dwelling Americans had access to a broadband connection, while just 69 per cent of rural dwellers had one. And the reason, unsurprisingly, is the same as here in Ireland: cost. It is uneconomic for private sector providers to run fibre-optic cables to remote areas, so they just don't do it.

The question now being asked by many people, both here and in the US, is whether the new superfast 5G mobile service can offer a viable alternative to fibre broadband. The answer is a firm “not really”. In America, it has been noted that the fastest 5G services are actually quite limited in range, meaning that bringing them to rural areas would be almost as cost-prohibitive as fibre.

A 2017 article in US magazine Broadband Communities pointed to the key technological constraints which will prevent 5G offering a real alternative to fixed broadband in rural areas.

“Though 5G may represent substantial progress, particularly in the context of mobile service, it is more evolutionary than revolutionary. It is targeted primarily at, and is most effective in, densely populated areas. It is also suitable for the very low-demand, very occasional-use sensors and actuators that will proliferate with the forthcoming Internet of Things [IoT]. But because 5G depends on very densely deployed small cells, it is highly unlikely to replace 4G for coverage outside towns and thus will not be a solution for the digital divide that affects those areas. Even within rural community centres, its requirement for ‘deep fibre’ renders it unlikely to be cost-effective for fixed broadband, and it potentially bottlenecks the service at the same time, compared with fibre-to-the-premises.”

Viable

The Irish communications regulator shares that view, and ComReg commissioner Jeremy Godfrey told the Oireachtas Committee on Communications back in June that 5G won’t offer a viable broadband solution for the entire country, nor would it meet the needs of everyone living in rural Ireland.

Godfrey was answering questions on the National Broadband Plan (NBP), specifically on why the State is spending €3 billion on a national fibre service when the latest mobile 5G technology is already being rolled out.

He agreed that the speeds on offer from 5G appeared very high, but said they would fall dramatically with heavy use.

“That very expensive additional mobile network coverage wouldn’t be sufficient to meet the objectives of the National Broadband Plan,” he told the committee.

But 5G will still have a role to play in the overall broadband solution for rural Ireland.

"The reality of all these technologies is that they must be seen as complementary to each other," says Vodafone Ireland IoT country manager Debbie Power.

Power explains that the backhaul, the actual stuff that connects mobile signals to the internet, will always be delivered by fibre.

“Getting as much fibre in the ground as possible will be important for everyone,” she adds. “5G won’t replace DSL or fibre-to-home or other technologies. The way they work together will open up greater potential for the development of new killer apps in future.”

She points to agriculture and healthcare as examples of where 5G, working in tandem with rural broadband, can deliver new solutions.

“When you think about global food shortages and the UN Sustainable Development Goals, there are things there that can be solved by technology. Farmers are early adopters of technology, and drones connected to 5G can be used to monitor crops and livestock and make farming more efficient. Drones can sometimes be viewed negatively but their use for social good as a medicines delivery mechanism in remote areas could be very important.”

Relevant

PwC energy leader Ger O'Mahoney believes 5G will be very relevant for rural Ireland.

“It will be as important in rural areas as broadband is now,” he says. “It just depends on how quickly it will get rolled out to those areas. If you think about any application that needs strong broadband like smart meters and so on, they will become tethered devices with their own built-in 5G SIM, and the service will be critically important for that.”

Power’s colleague, Vodafone technology director Didier Clavero, also sees the different technologies working together to deliver overall solutions. “We are very supportive of the National Broadband Plan and we are extremely happy with it,” he says.

He points out that Vodafone is already supporting digital enterprise hubs in the regions.

“These bring extremely good benefits for both the environment and the communities where they are located. They are creating jobs and reducing the need for people to commute to cities. They are also creating new and different economic opportunities for the local communities.

“Fibre will be needed for both the National Broadband Plan and 5G,” he continues. “When you compare wireless services with fibre you always have to see them as complementary to one another. We will always need both. Having both will give rural dwellers the same opportunities as people living in the cities, but we need the combination. 5G can’t provide all the solutions that fibre can, but it can do things that fibre can’t. Also, extremely remote areas where there is no business case to bring fibre may be served by 5G in the future.”