Internet of Things (IoT)

With its rugged coastlines, unpredictable weather, and far-flung towns and villages, Scotland’s Orkney Islands might seem an unlikely setting for cutting-edge technologies. But the region has become a test bed for everything from underwater data centers to wind, tidal, and wave power.

Lately, however, it’s 5G technologies that have been making waves of a different kind.

That’s all thanks to an initiative called 5G RuralFirst. Built around a consortium spearheaded by Cisco and principal partner the University of Strathclyde, it’s been showcasing the potential for 5G to connect the unconnected and drive growth in even the most remote places.

“Our mission is all about identifying practical 5G use cases in rural areas,” said Nick Chrissos of Cisco, “to demonstrate the value of investing in the digital infrastructure serving rural businesses and communities for the benefit of the entire country.”

Like many rural regions, Orkney makes an important, though often overlooked contribution to the wider economy. In Scotland, for example, 27 percent of the economy (in gross value add), is generated from rural areas such as Orkney. Yet a lack of connectivity prevents key industries like salmon farming, agriculture, renewable energy, and tourism from realizing the benefits of transformative technologies.

“We have patchy mobile phone coverage and the slowest broadband speeds in the U.K.,” said Shona Croy, the strategic advisor for renewables and connectivity for the Orkney Islands Council. “So we can’t make use of technology to lower the cost of the services we deliver and improve the connectivity of businesses and individuals.”

5G RuralFirst is exploring ways to change all that, by using techniques like dynamic spectrum sharing and network slicing to prove the cost effectiveness of 5G.

“We’re looking at a new way of thinking,” said Greig Paul of the University of Strathclyde, “a new way of envisioning how we’ve built the network, how to deploy a network, and how a network like this would actually be funded and paid for and make revenue.”

With additional partners that include national and local government agencies, the BBC, ISPs like CloudNet, the Agri-EPI Centre, and the Scottish Futures Trust, the consortium has been working to demonstrate 5G’s superior bandwidth, speed, and range.

At the same time, a parallel initiative in the Southern UK regions of Somerset and Shropshire is exploring 5G’s potential to transform agriculture.

While most 5G discussions focus on more densely packed urban areas, 5G RuralFirst aims to drive new growth in rural areas — for service providers and enterprises alike.

“There are business opportunities here that the service providers are not looking at, or don’t know about,” said Stephen Speirs of Cisco. “The salmon industry is the biggest food export out of the UK. And it’s all based around these islands and lochs in Scotland. Agriculture, again, it’s big across the UK. And the farms are getting increasing opportunity with autonomous tractors, connected cows, that kind of stuff. But all that needs connectivity, and they weren’t getting it.”

Source: Cisco.com

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