How 5G will affect traffic in cities
Telefónica has launched the first 5G services in some of Spain’s largest cities. The launch of this fifth generation of connectivity will help cities truly enter into the ‘Internet of Things’.
When talking about ‘5G’, this refers to ‘fifth generation technology' - or fifth generation mobile internet connectivity. 5G is the successor of ‘fourth generation’ (4G) technology. 4G allows the user to browse the internet at a speed of up to 1.2 gigabits per second, which corresponds to the time takes between an initial command or ‘request’ and the first bit of response from the network. Increased speed from 5G connectivity will allow more objects to be connected to the network at the same time and function at a much faster pace than 4G . With many cities striving to become ‘smart’ - especially when it comes to traffic management, 5G is opening up this possibility.
More connected than ever
5G will be able to support the wide-scale deployment of connected vehicles communicating with traffic signals in an attempt to reduce traffic jams, accidents and generally improve road safety. It will also allow for large numbers of sensors to measure the safety of infrastructure such as water pipes, motorways and buildings, in real time.
There are numerous projects underway from companies who are beginning to test the viability of 5G technology. Transportation projects are using real time traffic to test the available communication pathway between both vehicles and infrastructure and the inter vehicular communication system. The purpose of these experiments is to check how functional the 5G network actually is, when considering solving possible problems that a vehicle may encounter during day-to-day activities. Once further testing is done, can we look forward to enjoying intelligent in-car services such as: the detection of obstacles on the road, the detection of pedestrians at intersections with traffic lights, alerts about near by cyclists in the vicinity, or warning to pedestrians that a car is approaching.
All positives?
As with most technology, it has a few downfalls. The arrival of the 5G may well bring time-saving solutions such as a reduction of traffic jams or reduced numbers of road traffic accidents. Though, issues around user privacy is already flagging up potential problems. Communications between vehicles and other devices will leave a records. It is these records that could possibly lead to user privacy issues. It will be important to observe how legislation develops in order to be able to protect users’ data from being illegally exposed to third parties.
Nevertheless, we hope solutions can be found to such potential privacy risks, seeing as 5G has a huge opportunity to become one of the most important elements in supporting increased levels of safety in cities. Amidst the excitement of the emergence of 5G technology, there is still a lot of work to be done before 5G can being controlling traffic. Aside from the significance of 5G technology, in order for this rapid connectivity option to really have an impact, public infrastructure and telecommunications infrastructures need to continue to evolve to ensure that 5G technology can be used to its full capacity.
