Sci-fi fans will recall these being three of RoboCop’s prime directives from Paul Verhoeven’s classic 1987 movie. It charted a dystopian Detroit bristling with bile and brutality in the near future. Amid the gruesome shoot-outs were more sensitive – and occasionally satirical subplots - covering gentrification, media control and what we’d now describe as Big Tech. Thirty years on and some of these themes have become live issues for cities. Debates around human rights have dogged trials of camera-mounted police armour and wireless, smart-video surveillance combining facial recognition software with AI to identify threats has drawn criticism. Earning trust may take time. Ironically, 5G could actually make it harder for police to do their job, according to Catherine De Bolle, head of Europol. She told last summer that while authorities are now able to listen to and track criminals using mobile devices on the 4G network, “we cannot use them in the 5G network.” Of course there will be other tools at cops’ disposal: from traffic monitoring analytics to smart lighting and the potential ability to halt vehicles remotely. But while unifying large networks of sensors across factories or other enclosed spaces is one thing, getting enough capacity across dense, chaotically-planned cities full of concrete buildings will be far more challenging. Providing the seamless connectivity and coverage 5G promises across a city the size of London will require over 500,000 small cell antenna - each providing a limited range of reliable, uninterrupted coverage. This won’t come cheap, not least because Britain is way behind other countries when it comes to fibre which is needed to link infrastructure together. When it comes to cellular connectivity, according to Ofcom the UK performs much better - they put geographic coverage (from at least one operator) at 91% and also suggest that download speeds vary significantly by operator in the UK, depending on what operators choose to invest and what spectrum capacity is available. Nevertheless, when it comes to the rollout of 5G, most people seem to agree that Britain is one of the world leaders. As well as millions of small cells fixed to lampposts and litter bins, fibre, antennas and masts will need to sew buildings together, weaving through roads and railways. The EU is ambitiously targeting 2025 for the smart motorway network to cover all member states. The point here is that considerations around coverage are going to need to be dealt with properly if things like autonomous vehicles are to become a reality. And the wider challenges of what we do outside of cities, where the economies of scale that come from sports stadiums or shopping malls don’t exist, are very real. To help, the government has responded to complaints from Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) around the exorbitant costs of providing 5G for all by shifting the balance of power towards them. Reform to the Electronic Communications Code (the Code) has enabled MNOs to pay much lower rent on new agreements to occupy space. The Code means that occupiers of land may be forced to accept equipment on their land, and terms (including price) with the MNOs may be set by a tribunal if no agreement can be reached. A flurry of tribunal activity has occurred, with rent levels being set far below previous highs. Aggrieved landlords, who would always rather have a roof terrace than a huge mast, not only fear cuts in income (which, in fairness, will be modest in real terms even if the relative cuts are steep) are more scared of the inability to redevelop space once mobile infrastructure is in place, legal remedies aside.

Many real estate firms however, recognise that for their buildings to be sustainable, they need connectivity. And the smart ones have planned for this in advance, as our Offices chapter demonstrates. However, the practical upshot of the cases that are making their way through the tribunals, is that 5G infrastructure rollout could well be delayed. What’s clear is that without buy-in from real estate owners, smart cities able to support millions of IoT devices per square mile, will be tougher to shape. That’s because the sheer density of cities mean it’s essential to pepper real estate with antennae and small cells. But there is a huge upside for cities, particularly when it comes to energy efficiencies and emission reduction. Being able to monitor and universally automate the energy that goes to wasted heating and lighting could be pivotal to making cities cleaner and greener. This will be critical if we are to execute the from urban areas by 2050 to meet the Paris Agreement targets. Data from O2 estimate 5G smart energy grids and applications will deliver 12% cuts to average UK household energy consumption, around £145 less a year on energy bills, saving 6.4 metric tonnes of CO2. This is as much as taking one and a half million cars off the road each year. Cities are disproportionately responsible for global energy consumption and CO2 emissions, something that is on track to accelerate as more and more people worldwide move from rural to urban areas. consume more than two-thirds of the world’s energy, and are the source of 70% of the world’s emissions. And with each week seeing an average additional moving to urban areas across the world, the that the proportion of people living in cities across the world will go from just over half in 2018 (55%) to over two-thirds (68%) by 2050. Frankly, 5G will also be crucial in preparing and future-proofing cities to handle the pressures that the torrential population growth will put on public infrastructure. For example, estimates that 5G-enabled smart motorways will be able to fit a fifth car on for every four thanks to 5G’s real-time analytics improvements for lane management. Making the most of existing capacity is obviously one essential way 5G can help to keep cities livable as more and more move to them. Yet there is still a lack of clarity about just how much infrastructure will be needed or what impact it will have on the aesthetics of buildings. But the use case for applications linking millions of devices to handle improvements in public safety, utilities management, public services and emergency response are growing clearer by the day. In healthcare, for example, 5G will not only allow for more remote diagnosis but near-predictive preventative healthcare diagnosis, something which would have a huge impact down the line in easing local social care budgets. Similarly, the upshot of autonomous vehicles would be similarly preventative. The societal improvements of the reduction in deaths from road accidents and air pollution caused by congestion verge on the unquantifiable. That said, with planning laws being restricted to expand permitted development rights (PDR), 5G is about to get a lot more visible outside of cities. While these same extensions to PDR will also make it easier for MNOs to swoop in on buildings, the upshot for landlords is that it will also make it easier for them to move kit if the need comes to redevelop. What’s needed - and what is largely occurring - is a wholesale rethink on how we consider connectivity. As Bruntwood’s Cliff Dennett accurately puts it: "Today, to not consider connectivity in the same way you would conventional infrastructure in building design is nonsensical. We must be building in mass wireless connectivity right from the design stage, because it is expected." So, as with pretty much any form of infrastructure, the critical debate will rest upon viability. Operators such as the BT Group are clear that industry-wide proposals such as the Shared Rural Network - aiming to connect the stubborn last few areas of the UK not covered by mobile networks at all - are highly dependent on Government funding to supplement the material investment being made by BT/EE and all of the other operators. In their view, monetary guarantees are the only resolution to a problem amplified by the costs of wrapping sparsely populated areas in coverage. In parallel with what the Government is being asked for, (which will take 4G coverage from 91% to 95%) industry (including BT) are committing to invest in ensuring that choice of networks is far wider than today. Currently only 66% of UK landmass has access to all 4 networks. Industry is extending access to 88% and funding that itself.

It’s impossible to put a sensible figure on either the total cost or the full benefits from 5G due to the sheer volume of variables and unknowns. To be clear though, that initial capital outlay for the required infrastructure is certainly no small matter, even though 5G can be built upon existing 4G infrastructure (which will continue to run alongside it after 5G is introduced). At the heart of city upgrades will be an astonishing amount of fibre-optic cable that needs laying to hook buildings, homes and outdoor antenna up to the 5G network. According to French think tank IDATE, with just 1.5% of buildings connected to the fibre network in the UK, we rank behind the likes of Serbia (1.9%), Kazakhstan (15.2%), and Russia (35.4%). While it in part reflects the UK’s technically-outdated copper cabling network - something critics argue we have clung to for too long - our ability to support widespread and fast connectivity does appear to have been accomplished in spite of, not because of, infrastructure. In addition it must be remembered that the ability to deliver fibre is impacted by the agreement of landlords to give access to facilitate that and many larger buildings are being missed out in the course of the wider fibre rollout as a result. Essentially, MNOs want Government support and everyone else thinks the Telco's should pay. In reality, the costs (and the benefits) need to be borne by everyone. Local authorities could have a big role to play, not least because many need to work hard to attract occupiers back to town centres. They would be wise to take the position of active drivers, encouraging the rollout process, smoothing the path and offering public spaces for innovation use. Nationally, we need proper business rates reform that encourages investment and equalises the competitiveness of physical retail with online. Without this, private businesses won’t have much incentive to invest offline.

Certainly, the incentives to be relentless champions and facilitators of getting 5G kit in place are strong from a local authority perspective. Councils could stand to save millions each year, through better preventative services for health or safety, and better monitoring and measurement of public services and utilities.

public space

transport

According to the UN, the share of the population living in cities across the world will go from just over half in 2018 (55%) to over two-thirds (68%) by 2050. That influx of people will put strains on existing infrastructure in cities that are vital for commuters and city dwellers alike. However, 5G technology has the potential to be hardwired into transport management systems for infrastructure like road and rail, making them more efficient and able to cope with increased demand. In Britain, 38% of train cancellations or delays are due to maintenance issues. But, 5G sensors across railway lines could enable predictive maintenance, meaning problems could be identified long before they become serious or disruptive. According to a report by mobile phone giant O2, predictive maintenance on the UK’s rail lines could reclaim an estimated £440 million in lost productivity resulting from delayed trains. Furthermore, 5G has the potential to make our roads less congested and greener through enabling road management systems that can sort out traffic pressures at super-fast speeds. If these management systems helped reduce traffic congestion by 10%, it could save our economy £880 million a year and reduce CO2 emissions by 370,000 metric tonnes per year, according to O2. And 5G could even help slash deaths on the roads according to Hitachi Ventara’s Felipe Padilla Gomez, CTO of IoT, AI and Analytic.

healthcare

5G also has the potential to increase numerous aspects of healthcare. It will enable virtual medicine to increase the effectiveness of preventative care, by allowing doctors to “remotely visit” patients and other standardised checks to be performed by AI. In the home, there could be more scanning and testing, meaning less need to go to GP surgeries, while at distance monitoring means elderly or disabled patients can stay in their own home, rather than have to live in care. Advanced computer software is already being used to diagnose patients and spot insights into diseases when there are large datasets to trawl through. AIs are already being used for medical imaging - where they can analyse thousands of scans - and they can be as good as doctors at spotting lung and skin cancer, alongside eye conditions, according to recent research led by the University of Birmingham and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. In hospitals themselves, remote surgery means a specialist surgeon in China could perform a procedure in the UK through augmented reality surgery. Robotic and robot assisted surgery will also make complex surgery safer and minimise discomfort for patients – while machines can perform much of the preparation and alignment which reduces the time needed for a surgeon to be there, freeing them up for other procedures. More simply, the design of wards could change. Patient records can be linked to each bed, while a machine with sensors could transmit issues to nurses, which could mean more private rooms as line of sight isn’t needed. This is something that is being practically applied now. The NHS announced in August 2019 it is setting up an AI laboratory to enhance the care of patients and research, with Health Secretary Matt Hancock saying AI had "enormous power" to improve care, save lives and ensure doctors had more time to spend with patients. Most importantly, the ability to dedicate specific bandwidths through network slicing will ensure connections for essential functions can be guaranteed.

personal data and privacy

The network of sensors that 5G will produce will also allow us to better on how a city works and improve processes. A large part of that physical management of cities will rely on the effective collection of all that data, its analysis and its management, alongside its effective ethical use. “It will provide better data for planning simulations, and the understanding on the more behavioural side of things, particularly in relation to the movements and desires of people. This will allow us to plan infrastructure better in the future,” says Dr Eime Tobari, Director of Urban Analytics at AECOM. Tobari used the example of work she had done along the Oxford-Cambridge Arc for a previous employer. Milton Keynes, sitting halfway along the arc, wanted to know the potential benefit from the East-West Rail, and the proposed new Expressway. Tobari conducted a simple study using the spatial network model, which was integrated with some other datasets such as public transport, land use and demographics. “It found that neither new piece of infrastructure would help Milton Keynes residents access significantly more jobs within half an hour,” says Tobari. “This does not suggest new infrastructure was unnecessary but highlighted the importance of local transport network that connects residents to the regional infrastructure for them to benefit from it.” Increased connectivity and devices will of course result in more data – and allow us to measure more accurately a variety of things. But there are issues that come with this. Currently, many analysis programs focus on visualising data, rather than actually analysing it or using it for new purposes. “We still don’t necessarily have sufficient skills to use the data effectively,” says Tobari. “We already collect huge amounts of information and there are cool visualisation tools. But we need to go beyond a visualisation to extract insight and to create a new solution.” There then rest problems, ethical and in terms of privacy, of accessing that data. Some commentators think that provided companies can show the use case of sharing data, the public will be more easily won over. “Convenience is everything: while there are data and privacy concerns, people love convenience and they will exchange their data for what makes their lives better and gives a great experience. When everything is IoT connected, people will be frustrated when it isn’t,” says Bertie Van Wyk, Workplace Specialist at Herman Miller. However others remain sceptical. The recent backlash towards facial recognition technology at Kings Cross is a case in point, with any benefits to security being seen as less valuable than breaches of privacy. “Mobile companies and infrastructure companies already have huge amounts of information about behaviour, but it is understandably private” says Tobari. “With the current backlash against big tech companies and the way they handled personal data, this may not change quickly, but the question is how legislation can push to a more open data culture, while still protecting our rights.”

Traffic lights can be connected through 5G, so can a dustbin, or a water pipe. In this sense, the sensor can tell the monitoring body when a bin needs emptying or a pipe is losing pressure. Something as simple as smart street lighting, lighting that dims when no one is around, is already being rolled out from France to North America. In the US, the potential savings from this are estimated to be more than $1bn per year, not to mention the advantages for the environment. The promise is that companies and authorities, after the initial capital outlay, could save millions through more effective management of services. More exciting, however, is a better utilisation of existing infrastructure.

“5G enables vehicle-to-vehicle communication, and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication: that’s the fundamental base not only for the full optimisation of traffic flow, but also for the prospect of autonomous driving, because of the safety improvements and the interaction it enables between vehicles,” he says. “The impact of that on society will be massive. More than 1,600 people die in the UK from road accidents a year. Approximately 1.6% of the European Union’s GDP is lost every year from traffic. And that improvement in journey efficiency will have its own knock-on effects, such as on the 20,000 deaths in Mexico City each year from air pollution from vehicles, which will also in turn see a big fall from the increased use of electric vehicles.”

Towering demand means more masts

When it comes to ensuring comprehensive outdoor 5G coverage, the key is transitioning towards a higher density infrastructure network, more reliant on closely spaced street-level telecoms transmission antennae. This is in contrast to the current, more spaced out, network of taller (but relatively farther apart) outdoor telecoms towers and masts, which cover larger areas, but less reliably, and which are more likely to have coverage blackspots, where buildings get in the way, or fail during sudden high demand, from lots of users in an area. Because of the density of demand and development in cities, urban outdoor network kit is typically less about the sorts of masts sitting on the edges of fields that support rural and suburban coverage, and relies much more on masts on high-rise rooftops (or relatively less tall towers standing on several-storey shoulders). “To give you an example of what this means in practice, think of how a mobile operator tries to cover an entire city. They put what we call microcells onto big towers to collect the traffic from the customers and then share to their core network,” says Jose Antonio Aranda, Innovation & Product Strategy Director, at Cellnex. “However, in areas where there are a lot of people in the same place, that traffic is too much and the cells are not able to serve all the demands of the customers in that area. That's why you need to put smaller cells that you can put every 100 metres, or every 50 metres, depending on the configuration, and collect all this traffic.” Cities will need those smaller cells in place to support the sheer torrent of data demand 5G will unleash in densely populated areas. McKinsey analysis projects average data traffic between one and two petabytes - a million gigabytes) per square kilometre across major cities - a category it mentions Manhattan, Helsinki, and Hong Kong’s Kowloon district in the same breath for - by 2025. That same McKinsey analysis found current typical European urban demand levels of 0.5 petabytes per square kilometre rely on networks built on a density of a cell less than every 200 metres apart. So a four-scale increase in how much data the network will need to handle will need that average to fall to less than a 50 metre gap between each cell, just to handle the data needs of maintaining current 4G coverage levels. Given how much more important comprehensive reliable coverage will be for the many more use demands driving up to a quadrupling of traffic, we can expect the practical average cell density needed to make coverage blackspots a thing of the past to be even lower still. The estimated 500,000 cells needed to make all 1,569 square kilometres of Greater London 5G-ready implies an average density of a cell every three metres. Fantastical as it sounds, given 5G will rely on a mix of mast-type macro cells and street-level small cells, it implies a density likely equivalent in practice to having a .

The importance of neutral hosts

Numerous companies are now acting as neutral, multi-operator hosts that invest in network coverage infrastructure that all of the mobile operators can use, instead of each operator having to install their own mast or internal network that only provides their network. Secular growing demand for their product, both universal quality wireless coverage, and multiple operators for the kit they build, is drawing investment into the sector in the form of patient, long-term, capital which recognises the value this market offers as a safe bet for low-cost returns over a several-decade horizon.

What is the advantage of a neutral host?

Originally mobile operators rolled out their own infrastructure networks to give themselves competitive advantage. Over time, as coverage has become complete, they’re now turning more towards neutral hosts, as they lower their economic costs and help them reach more challenging areas, such as remote rural locations, and roadside and rail track connections. Independent outdoor infrastructure is much more efficient in terms of connectivity and location: a found independent masts are shared by an average of 2.4 operators, compared to 1.3 for network-owned towers and are, on average, 40% more efficiently located. Neutral hosting also aligns with the Government’s goals for the market. The Department of Culture, Media and Sport’s Future Telecom Infrastructure Review identified encouraging competitive infrastructure models as a priority, and specifically name checked the neutral host model to that end. The European Wireless Infrastructure Association report also estimated independent operators will deliver efficiency savings of over €30bn in the European market by 2029.

What proportion of outdoor infrastructure is provided by neutral hosts?

Outdoor, globally about 60% of network infrastructure is provided by independent, neutral hosts, but only about a third of it is in the British and European markets. In the UK, there are about 36,000 mobile sites, with about 10% of those owned independently.

What does indoor network infrastructure typically require?

For indoor small cell infrastructure, it’s made up of antennae scattered throughout the venue that propagate the signal, and the subsidiary remote units that amplify it. Those antennae are connected with cable infrastructure to an equipment room which provides the signal being, in turn, connected to the mobile operators’ radios. That altogether provides dedicated coverage to a venue, unaffected by the outdoor signal and shareable between operators.

What are the considerations involved in providing network infrastructure?

For indoor venues, the two key things to keep in mind are coverage and capacity. Coverage is essentially ensuring that all parts of the venue are covered. So, to take a football stadium - that means making sure it comprehensively reaches all parts, not just the terraces and the corporate hospitality areas, but also making sure people aren’t left with one or two bars of signal and a patchy connection in the concourse and the food courts. But vitally, that’s nothing without capacity. You may have all the parts of the stadium covered, but can it manage 50,000 people all using their phones on match day? When you have to provide for that many people, you can’t just rely on picking up an outdoor signal and pumping it through your indoor network. You need the operators to connect their radio base stations, which go back to their core networks, up to your indoor infrastructure to guarantee that dedicated service is available and doesn’t get congested.

The underground network underpinning over ground coverage

But all of the 5G network will be dependent on mass fiberisation, upgrading the UK’s underground telecommunications cable system from its current copper standard to the fibre optic wiring needed to sustain the exponential leap in data traffic demand and the necessity for seamlessly reliable coverage. This doesn’t just mean getting more homes and buildings upgraded to fibre optic cabling, and connecting more of them up to the underground tunnel network. As Cellnex’s Jose Aranda points out, the entire envisaged dense network of small cells covering the cities of the future will need to be hooked up too. “Right now, not all the antennas are covered by fibre. But with 5G, every antenna will need to be connected with fibre in order to cope with all the traffic each one will collect”. The question of what and who could drive these cabling improvements is, however, potentially more interesting than the obvious debate of who should pay for all of this improved infrastructure. It would be reasonable to expect Openreach, a wholly owned subsidiary of BT Group which owns the bulk of the UK’s underground cable duct tunnel network to take the lead in delivering the copper to fibre upgrades equivalent to turning the ‘roads’ of this national data communications system into motorways. The operational significance of this is that BT Group, while funding the roll out, has no influence over how that money is then spent once given over. However, changes brought in by OFCOM in September 2018 mean that Openreach no longer has a competitive near-monopoly on cabling upgrades from owning so much of the network. The regulator has opened access to Openreach ducts to MNOs, meaning providers, typically more associated with over ground wireless infrastructure, are likely to play a much bigger role in delivering full fibre upgrades to the underground network than they would have been able to otherwise.

There are two parts to the 5G infrastructure piece cities need to consider: the first is outdoor network coverage, ensuring wireless signal is in place to cover as much distance and as many people as possible. This will involve not just installing the telecommunications masts and towers many are already familiar with, but also a dense network of ‘small cells’ - hundreds of thousands of small, street-level antennae (typically on the backs of lamp-posts) across a city, to support the massive data needs of 5G applications and explosion in the number of mini smart devices hooked up to provide them. The second is wiring up buildings and antennae to the 5G network, by upgrading existing underground cable networks to fibre-optic cable that 5G depends on.

Increased rural and suburban data demands of 5G can probably be supported with more towers in more fields in the middle of nowhere and all depends on the degree to which infrastructure is shared in the UK. In the UK we are now moving towards a model where infrastructure in total and partial not-spots is shared between all four networks. But the unavoidable need for more rooftops to be taken for increased city cell density means needed urban 5G infrastructure installation will impact much more on the sorts of landholders with the financial muscle to own a high-rise building in the first place and, importantly, make a lot of noise and hassle if they don’t want a 5G mast on top of theirs.

Local councils, which between them also own significant stretches of the duct network, can also take a lead in driving fibre upgrades. Estimates of the exact proportion of the network owned by the likes of Openreach and local councils aren’t possible, as up-to-date records on which parts of the network are operational and how much of a given duct’s capacity is being used aren’t collected. The National Infrastructure Commission has held up as best practice the approach of local authorities such as Aberdeen Council, who changed their procurement process for upgrading their network cabling to favour the tender offering the most comprehensive, future-proofed wireless coverage across the city, rather than the one bidding the highest amount for access to their duct network. The Aberdeen example also highlights one other potential major driver of fiberisation: . Fundamentally, the sheer range of potential applications of 5G means that trend is going to be towards occupiers across sectors – office, retail, or industry, treating 5G connectivity as a basic utility demand in coming years. Major land and property managers, such as the Canary Wharf Group are, rightly, positioning themselves on the lightning-fast universal seamless connectivity their 5G-connected estates will offer potential tenants. It may well be that sheer competitive preservation becomes more of a pull-factor than anything else in evolving the map of UK fibre optic cable coverage from one resembling the early motorway system to one resembling the UK’s economic nervous system.

When it comes to installing telecommunications infrastructure in the UK, there’s only one game in town: the new Electronic Communications Code (EEC). Introduced in December 2017. The Code governs the relationship between MNOs and landowners when it comes to siting and finding the land for the masts, cables, antennae and kit cabins needed to provide wireless networks. OFCOM-approved MNOs are awarded ‘Code Powers’. Importantly, and this is the subject of not inconsiderable friction between landlords and MNOs, Code Powers give operators the right to requisition land, such as roof space to install telecoms infrastructure. This is akin to a compulsory purchase order, except along the lines of a lease - the operator doesn’t own the land but does have to pay to the landholder for the space.

How land valuations work under the New Code

The old Code, which the new ECC replaced, typically allowed landowners to be rewarded for allowing infrastructure to be installed in their space (although in certain circumstances they did have to foot the bill). However, in line with the Government’s priority for increased national connectivity, the new Code has given much more power to MNOs when it comes to requisitioning space, and established provisions allowing them to do so on much better terms.

The perspective for landowners and PDRs

The new Code has polarised the landlord and operator community – perhaps not surprising when it represents a significant change in the industry. But given the insatiable consumer demand for bigger/faster/better connectivity and download speeds, this is the Government’s answer to assist the operators in rolling out Digital Britain. A measure of this polarisation the new Code has engendered is that the old Code, which had been in place since 1984, saw relatively few cases ever brought to tribunal, arguably because of the ambiguous and complex way the first Code was written, together with impractical enforcement methods. However, in the 18 months alone since the new Code was introduced, 9 cases have been judged by the tribunal, with over 70 applications having been lodged. To those familiar with recent trends in real estate and what tenants want, it’s not hard to see why there is an issue. The rooftops MNOs often need for this stuff are hot property. Secret rooftop cinemas, sky gardens and penthouse terraces are all the rage in big cities, giving landlords the opportunity to command premium rents in line with the reliable commercial draw these sorts of amenities offer. A low offer might provoke an objection, particularly if a landlord has ambitious plans for its rooftop but that would then lead to a fair discussion of alternative use value. Observers may reasonably ask what the practical upshot of this friction between the property and mobile operator world is for getting the infrastructure in place for 5G, if MNOs largely have carte blanche over getting the land to put the kit where it’s needed. While this is the case, if landlords don’t agree to a new site acquisition or an upgrade of an existing site, that may cause the MNOs to take cases to the tribunal. Some relief is potentially on the horizon. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has launched a consultation on introducing Permitted Development Rights (PDRs) for 5G infrastructure. These are the same planning rights that have seen a wave of office buildings converted into housing this decade, by fast-tracking applications for developments so long as they aren’t in violation of certain provisions (e.g. adding flood risk). This will also have some benefits for landlords, as it will be easier for operators to move to alternative sites - and remove the hold-up to the process they pose for landowners redeveloping space being used for infrastructure. In the meantime, some city leaders have taken a lead in easing the process and averting set-tos between MNOs and private landlords, by offering up public sector roof space - where commercial imperatives tend to be less pressing than they are for private landlords. The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, released a for operators to use in applications to use public space for infrastructure, as part of a plan to address the city’s ‘not-spots’ and streamline 5G rollout.

As long as operators can prove, among other things, public benefit, the new Code gives them the power to appropriate space for much lower rents than previously. The tribunals that settle disputes between operators and landlords have listened to MNOs since the new Code came into force. The new Code’s prioritisation of fast and cost-effective rollout of 5G infrastructure limits the defences landowners can cite to refuse land access to operators, and makes it much harder for them to hold operators to ransom by demanding higher rents for access.

Automated vehicles, traffic management and transport

Every person and their dog is developing a self-driving car, and the likelihood is they will be here sooner than you think. Driverless cars will ultimately generate huge swathes of data (4TB per hour), according to O2. 5G’s seamless connectivity will be crucial in processing this data. Enabling the self-driving society will require a wholesale effort to install a comprehensive nationwide network of roadside 5G infrastructure. That involves nothing less than the installation of millions of small cells tens of metres apart, each providing limited but reliable coverage to chain a seamless pathway of connectivity. But the benefits are tangible - safer, less congested roads and a fundamental change to not just how we use the roads individually, but for commercial users like lorries. 5G-enabled smart roads will be able to deliver traffic improvements through sensors enabling things like more instant rerouting after accidents and dynamic speed limits so, for example, road authorities can force cars ahead of tailbacks to go slower, allowing congestion to clear before they reach them. All in all, Highways England estimates that smart motorways improve traffic capacity . In simple terms, a stretch of non-smart road that can currently only fit four cars during rush hour will be able to fit a fifth. Tony Gosling, Chief Digital Officer at Pell Frischmann is helping with the design and roll out of smart motorways in the UK. “The technology for autonomous vehicles is coming along fast. While there are a whole bunch of issues about doing it in practice, in principle a Tesla today can drive itself down the street.” He points to the Department of Transport already testing connected roads along the A2/M2 corridor, which is studying what kind of information needs to be piped from roadway to vehicles, and what kind of capacity that needs. However, the infrastructure, and whether it will ultimately be Government or private telecoms providers taking the lead in installing it, is still some way from being decided on. Highways England, however, has already committed to installing the necessary improvements on certain stretches of the road network, such as a 32-mile stretch of the M4 between London and Theale in West Berkshire - where investment of £27 million per mile will see one of the busiest stretches of the UK motorway network made smart and AV-ready by 2022. And, imagine if all long haul haulage was done at night – now possible due to autonomous programs that don’t fatigue. That would mean less use of motorways during the day, freeing them up for the general public. Essentially, rather than having to build new transport infrastructure, we might be able to double or triple the capacity of what we already have. However, joined-up thinking across sectors and cities will be required. “When we look at the economics of people collaborating across spaces, we want them to be able to work while they travel. The sweet spot is people being able to collaborate across cities, without feeling barriers,” says Henri Murison, director, Northern Powerhouse Partnership. “If the North of England is going to be a virtual city by 2050, it needs to happen in all the cities. The really key point is ensuring we have those corridors, to ensure continuous connectivity between cities, not just in them.” Overseas examples indicate collaboration between public and private sectors will be vital in establishing 5G smart road networks. In Finland, for example, homegrown household name Nokia has taken the lead in establishing prototype networks in rural areas and test bed smart cities, while the government has taken the lead in Switzerland’s urban-focused 5G network, launched in May this year, and in China which is set to roll out functioning smart highways early next decade.

The government must be willing to connect all parts of the country equally, to avoid the creation of haves and have-nots. Over the past 20 years, £45 billion has been spent on new mobile infrastructure, and £30 billion on spectrum licences. Despite this, 9% of the UK’s geographic area is not currently covered by any mobile network, let alone 5G. In the view of the BT Group, there is a straight-forward explanation for why there are still parts of the UK with total gaps in network coverage: “Simply, the upfront and operating costs can’t be met by the demand for mobile services that is present in these areas. The mobile sector has made a clear proposal to Government for how this gap could be closed as part of its vision for a ‘Shared Rural Network’. It makes clear that public funding will be necessary to close that gap." There is, at least, some solace for the UK. Boris Johnson’s first speech outside Downing Street as Prime Minister pledged a rollout of fibre connectivity across the country, referencing the digital divide and the importance of democratising high-speed internet access as a way of closing national inequalities. And on international comparisons, the UK is actually one of the leaders for reducing the digital divide within its own borders, with only a two percent difference between national and rural penetration rates for fixed broadband access in 2014 - with , ranking the UK joint second among major nations in the EU with Germany, behind only the Netherlands. “The government acknowledged in the Future of Telecoms Infrastructure Review that for around 15% of rural communities there is no commercial viability without government support, and it set up a fund to help the private sector bring fibre broadband to those communities,” says Marija Simpraga, Infrastructure Strategist, LGIM Real Assets. “As 5G rollout gets under way, disparity between quality service in rural vs urban areas will become more pronounced and difficult to justify. This could increase the political incentive to put measures in place to improve coverage in underserved areas.”

Drivers bridging the gap

A strong driver of bridging the urban-rural gap could be the potential to increase democracy and community involvement. The better communication, better connection and the ability for faster notifications 5G enables could change the planning process specifically. An open data culture allows the democratisation of decision-making. For example, for new infrastructure and housing, politics often affects planning, and government decisions are made because an area is marginal vote, not because the infrastructure would not be valuable. Being able to connect all members of the community, being able to grant them open data access, and being able to demonstrate to them in more quantifiable and measurable terms how a new development would contribute to the community would make a huge difference in the planning process, and in democracy in general.