“Fibre broadband is an integral part of the 5G story,” said Heather Burnett Gold, President and CEO of the Fiber Broadband Association. “Fibre-fed 5G can and will accelerate the connected future for our country, our businesses, and our communities.”

 

5G network architectures require additional fibre by design. In traditional networks, computing and processing power are co-located at the small cell site along with wireless antenna and transmission equipment. However, 5G will rely on a different network architecture known as Cloud (or Centralized) Radio Access

Networks (C-RAN). In this type of network, the main processing power is located at a distance from the local small cell site and aggregates the processing of many small cells into one location. Complex radio signals required for 5G can be efficiently and cost-effectively processed in a central location instead of at each small cell site.

 

The report also explains how 5G will integrate much higher radio frequencies than today’s cellular networks. These higher frequencies carry more data, but also have far shorter ranges, so small cells located at shorter distances from one another need to be introduced for 5G to work properly. These small cells will require hundreds of thousands or even millions of miles of new fibre optic cable. Policymakers have an important role to play in ensuring the required fibre networks are rolled out. The emergence of 5G makes policy steps more important than ever as fibre providers will need (reasonable and non-discriminatory) access to public and private rights-of-way; poles, ducts, and conduits; and commercial and residential buildings.

 

“Our connected future promises to be so diverse,” states Heather Burnett Gold, President & CEO, Broadband Association. “Devices of the future will include large numbers of autonomous vehicles, augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) devices, infrastructure sensors for smart transportation and public safety applications, and airborne drones. 5G will enable these kinds of technologies at exceptional scales, data rates, and low latencies. We do not yet know what the direct benefits will be to our economy and society but we can make some guesses: energy consumption is likely to decrease, city services can be deployed more efficiently, healthcare costs are likely to go down and congestion and traffic deaths will be mitigated through technology. Our policymakers can help by reducing barriers to deployment of infrastructure and making it cost-efficient to deploy, everywhere.”