UTC Warns 5G Still Years Away, Raises Many Questions for Utilities

The Utilities Technology Council is making a “concerted effort” to raise the importance of spectrum for monitoring and control of utility networks at the upcoming World Radio Communication conference, UTC reported Tuesday on why 5G is important for utilities. There's "hype around all things ‘5G’" that "dominates the global telecommunications landscape,” said President Joy Ditto. “In spite of all we hear about the ‘Race to 5G,’" and "while the impact of 5G wireless service could be profound, it is years away from being widely deployed.” Fifth-generation could help with the ultra-reliable low latency communications important to utilities, but questions remain, UTC said. “Even if the 5G network were optimized for this particular application by deployment of infrastructure closer to the end points, the costs of this additional equipment would be prohibitive if only required for this specialist application.” New 5G networks with millimeter-wave technology “will require much denser infrastructure -- dense networks of small cells, an order of magnitude greater than currently,” UTC said. “This presents enormous challenges in finding sites, powering the base stations and backhauling the data.”