Will 5g wireless push us Rurals further behind the curve?

While  5G networks (or fifth-generation wireless networks) are expected to increase wireless speeds and create a platform for new services, they also may exacerbate the digital divide and leave out a big chunk of rural America.

According to FCC data, 31% of rural residents don’t have fixed broadband service, compared to 2% of city residents.

Big wireless providers like AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile are promising that 5G will deliver gigabit speeds — up to 100 times faster than current 4G LTE wireless service — that will power smart cities, instant video delivery, virtual reality and a host of other applications that need constant, robust connections.

There is a problem though. The high-frequency airwaves capable of delivering those fast speeds can’t travel very far — only a few hundred feet with a clear line of sight. So networks will need hundreds of thousands more cell antennas to carry the signals. That may be feasible for a metropolitan downtown, but it’s too expensive in many rural areas.

Gigabit-level speeds also require antennas to link back to an immense amount of fiber in the ground. Digging hundreds of miles of trenches for fiber-optic cables alongside long country roads already makes it tough to get basic broadband connections to remote areas. About 14 million rural Americans lack mobile LTE broadband at download speeds of 10 megabits per second, per FCC data.