Dr. Nermin Mohamed, Head of Telecommunications Solutions at Wind River writes in Telecoms this week that despite efforts to improve rural connectivity provision for those living outside of cities, the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the work still needed to ‘balance out the digital inequalities that exist between town and country’

In 2020 the ONS reported 5 per cent of UK adults (2.7 million) did not have access to internet, limiting the potential for students accessing online classrooms, people working remotely, and for doctors and nurses to provide telemedicine services to their rural patients.

The author notes that while urban populations are enjoying the benefits of 5G roll outs, for many rural communities 5G connectivity is still several years away.

Dr Nermin advises that it’s imperative that mobile operators not only improve LTE connectivity for rural environments, but also equip residents with full 5G network deployments.

This will need to be done by building intelligent rural networks that leverage AI, analytics, automation and ‘turn the rural connectivity dream into a reality’, to ensure rural communities are not left behind.

Full article:

Telecoms - Making rural intelligent networks a reality