5G Digital Coverage Progress in the UK & Developing World Implications

BRISBANE, Australia - Oct. 1, 2019 - PRLog -- 5G mobile communication offers the prospect of high bandwidth reception for rapid video downloads, gaming and service provision to heavy concentrations of digital devices, eg: for pop concerts, major sporting events, shopping malls and crowded city centres.

In a blog published today (US time), PFMConnect Limited director, David Fellows, tempers expectations of widespread 5G coverage in developed countries on grounds of financial viability and suggests that developing countries are better served by focusing digital infrastructure investment on broadband cable and lower frequency 4G mobile services.

Implications for Developing Countries include:

1. Given the financial viability challenges in developed countries such as the UK it is clear that rolling out 5G services in developing countries will struggle to an even greater extent to make the necessary financial returns to match infrastructure outlay.

2. 4G is more readily viable than 5G and is a more obvious objective for developing countries for the foreseeable future. Governments need to consider their bandwidth licencing programmes accordingly.

3. The twin objectives of 4G mobile networks together with the fibre-optic cabling of CBD areas for super-high bandwidth communication have much to offer developing countries for the present.

General Conclusions

1. At the present time commercial ambitions for 5G mobile communication in the UK appear limited. Infrastructure ambitions for mobile services seem likely to be mainly focused on completing 4G coverage for some time to come.

2. Even in developed countries, 5G viability will depend on some or all of: (i) restricted service provision targeting areas of high demand; (ii) technological advances bringing cost-savings; (iii) user willingness to pay higher fee rates for 5G than its predecessor services; and (iv) modest, possibly shared, bandwidth in rural areas.

3. Developing countries would seem to have much more to gain from improving the reach of 4G mobile communication than encouraging service provider interest in 5G roll-out at this stage.

This article is available in full at: http://blog-pfmconnect.com/progress-with-5g-digital-coverage-in-the-uk-developing-world-implications/.

Note: David Fellows is a specialist in public financial management and digital government reform and is a director of PFMConnect. He is a recipient of the Swedish Prize for Democratic Digital Service Delivery.