Today, Brian Pickering of Nokia shared a interesting and digestible presentation on 5G wireless during the Blandin Broadband Leadership Roundtable.  Brian is the VP of 5G Product Sales North America for Nokia.  Brian is responsible for creation and implementation of the 5G sales strategy as well as business development in North America.

Brian outlined the three legs of the 5G stool that combine low latency, high reliability, capacity and connectivity:

• Extreme mobile broadband with greater than 10 Gbps peak data rates with 100 Mbps available whenever needed
• Critical machine communication
• Massive machine communication

Critically important to understanding 5G is knowing how radio spectrum impacts performance.  He described that as the frequency increases, data rates go up and coverage area goes down.  The lower frequencies, like 600 MHz are used by TMobile to deliver broadband in rural areas across a wide area.  The higher frequencies, also known as millimeter wave, in the 24-28 GHz range, are primarily for stadiums, factories, etc.  South Korea and other countries are making strong use of the 3.5 GHz frequencies which is a sweet spot for capacity and range.  The US is in the process of making this available via auction for future use.  Brian’s slides clearly show how different spectrum impacts coverage and business strategy.

Brian highlighted the current and future applications where 5G’s greatest potential will be realized.  Machine to machine communication and virtual and augmented reality are two important applications.  Watch the webinar here:  Download the slides here

Next week, Ann Treacy will host a conversation on Rural Mental Health and Telehealth with local experts from MN Rural Health Association, NAMI MInnesota and MN Department of Health. (More info soon.)

5G articles from Paul Weirtz

Some good pushback on the 5G/Coronavirus conspiracy theories:

• NY Times story:  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/10/technology/coronavirus-5g-uk.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
• The FCC is debunking this via twitter: https://twitter.com/FCC/status/1247628499290128385?s=20
• In addition, CTIA’s microsite, wirelesshealthfacts.com, has been updated to include a new one pager (attached) on the COVID/5G issue (mostly consisting of expert quotes), as well as Dr. Eric Swanson’s testimony. Both can be found on the resources page.

5G – Here are a couple of articles helping to debunk the “Coronavirus is caused by 5G”.  I think the media has actually been very helpful with all of this: 

• Fortune: “5G-coronavirus conspiracy theory is being boosted by organized disinformation campaign” (April 9)
• CNN: “The conspiracy linking 5G to coronavirus just will not die: As the spread of the coronavirus is proving difficult to contain, so too is the misinformation surrounding it”(April 8)

Online chat:

• Bill Coleman:                   IOT = Internet of things
• BERNADINE JOSELYN:   AR?
• Bill Coleman:                   AR = Augmented reality , VR = Virtual reality
• BERNADINE JOSELYN:   what’s the difference between AR and VR?
• Bill Coleman:                   Augmented is virtual added own top of reality.
• Melinda Miller:               FWA? [Fixed Wireless Access]
• Perry Mulcrone:              can he explain diff between 5G and 5G advanced again please?
• Perry Mulcrone:              We are using fixed wireless to transmit traffic video
• Perry Mulcrone:              where we do not have fiber
• Alex Weego:                    The biggest use of 5G now would be the rural school districts.
• Melinda Miller:               I believe Nokia provided some of the first small cells for downtown St Cloud
• Jeff Borling:                      Need to jump off for a 10:00 call – thank you for the informative presentation!
• Perry Mulcrone:              Thank you!
• BERNADINE JOSELYN:   great to have everyone on line with us today.  thanks for joining!
• James Van Leeuwen:     excellent