The 5G Roll Out In SCOTLAND – What Does It Mean For Business?
The Scottish Government's recent proposal for the launch of 5G communication technology will transform Scotland into one of the few countries at the forefront of the 5G technical revolution. But how will this impact business and what does it all mean? Jack Slater, Head of Technology at iOpt, explains.
5G is the latest in mobile wireless communication technology, it offers high speed communication and greater connectivity for mobile devices. This technology will not only benefit businesses, but also rural communities throughout the country.
Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has said: “5G offers rich potential - opportunities to enhance Scotland's global competitiveness, achieve economic growth and drive innovation across our public and private sectors.”
With the rise in IoT (Internet of Things) technology being used more and more within our daily lives to monitor a wide range of use cases, from health to environmental monitoring, it makes sense that 5G communication technology can play a key role in handling the huge amount of data produced by a multitude of connected IoT devices, whilst offering even closer real-time monitoring due to the speed and reliability of the connection.
At iOpt we specialise in property and environmental monitoring. Our clients are looking for their assets to be continually monitored, with the requirement that the IoT Sensors installed are independent in terms of power source and network connectivity. Our clients have property portfolios that are currently uninhabited or vacant and cannot rely on having the necessary power or communication infrastructure in place. The same can be said for inhabited properties, where landlords do not wish to burden their tenants with the costs needed to power and connect IoT sensors.
The LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network) enables us to deliver an interconnected, self organising, secure IoT property monitoring solution capable of fulfilling these requirements. This is because communication within the LoRaWAN is optimised for low power consumption and can support IoT networks at scale, with the potential of millions of devices connected, capturing real-time monitoring data across a range of industry and environmental use cases.
So, what does the roll out of 5G mean for the IoT business in Scotland?
The extremely low latency of communications will enable large amounts of data to be captured and analysed in as close to real time as possible. Future connectivity via the NB IoT (Narrowband IoT) offers wide ranging connectivity, whilst maintaining low transmission power, which enables longer battery life within devices.
Future connectivity of this communications infrastructure with 5G will pave the way for the smart cities of the future. Directly leveraging the analysis of Big Data in near real time provides greater insights for many applications throughout the use of Artificial Intelligence, Augmented or Virtual Reality, Robotics, Image Processing, Condition Monitoring and more. The application use cases are wide ranging and benefits provided by this digital transformation are massive.
Currently the LoRaWAN offers a low power, low cost, reliable and dynamic public communication infrastructure for IoT connected devices, that provides iOpt with an up-to-date representation of the condition of a property and the impact this has on the health and well-being of the tenant.
Potential future integration of LoRaWAN capabilities within 5G base stations could help to provide larger, more reliable low power public networks for the IoT sector, that will fit a wide range of applications.
At iOpt we are constantly looking for ways to use technology to drive innovation within our services, the advent of new combination technologies helps us maintain a data driven approach to our property monitoring as a service solution, which has the proven ability to benefit both landlords and tenants alike.
For more information, please contact us via email at info@ioptassets.com
