MARCH 2023TELECOM BUSINESS REVIEW8Rohit Narayan, Global Director, Telecom, nVentTechnological advances in 5G have generated excitement and enthusiasm about what 5G connectivity will mean for the world. 5G brings faster speeds of up to 10 gigabits per second (Gbps) to personal phones and industrial devices and delivers lower latency. It also allows for more devices to be connected simultaneously.The low latency of 5G makes it very attractive for time-critical communications and could enable many new applications in our streets. All of these applications are hard to imagine today, but could include city and national security systems, water and gas detection, smart wearables, car-to-car and car-to-home communications, smart utility grids, smart parking and traffic congestion relief. While the potential of 5G technology is extremely attractive, telecommunications carriers face many deployment challenges which may not have been given due consideration by the pure technology enthusiast. If the challenge of properly placing outdoor cells is not addressed, many of the benefits which carriers, governments, regulators and cities hope to derive from 5G will not come to fruition.Telecommunications carriers and other entities that are building infrastructure like smart cities depend on densification to get the full benefits of 5G. Densification means intense use of existing macro cell sites, new macro cell sites and deploying a very large number of street-mounted small cells. There will be challenges involved in the deployment of these cell sites which have to be addressed by industry bodies, carriers, power authorities, public works authorities, standards and codes ad government bodies. Here are a few of the major deployment challenges:1. Guidelines for joint use of power polesIn many instances, the 5G Small Cells will need to be installed on existing power poles. A large bulk of these power poles are owned by electrical power authorities. The requirements that power authorities have for 5G deployment companies in the installation of the 5G equipment is generally varied and in IN MY OPINIONByCHALLENGES OF5GDEPLOYMENT IN CITIESRohit Narayan
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