When: 27 November 2025, 13:00 - 19:00
Where: Cambridge Newnham College
Cost: Free to CW members £50.00 (+ VAT) for non members
This event will explore the delivery of 4G LTE and 5G mobile coverage and capacity to rural areas. We often hear of a digital divide between rural and urban areas, while enhanced mobile broadband delivers 100s of Mbps in many urban areas, the most basic of services are often unavailable in rural locations. What is the telecommunications industry and government doing to address this challenge, what is the role of local authorities and what innovative solutions can be deployed to enable a fully connected United Kingdom? Innovative solutions will need to address town and county planning concerns, to blend into the environment in sensitive areas, and to provide sufficient capacity rather than just coverage in areas where fixed wireless access may be required as a substitute for fixed fibre connectivity.
Building cell sites is only one part of the challenge though, how are these sites connected back to the core network? If fibre isn’t available then wireless backhaul is required, this may be terrestrial point to point microwave radio or possibly satellite communications. In addition to satellite based backhaul, there is lots of excitement and a certain amount of hype about the use of direct to device communications from satellites in low earth orbits (LEO), let’s discuss the reality of these solution, where they help while also understanding their significant constraints, particularly with regards capacity.
What is a rural area? How do the deployment scenarios and use cases vary from urban areas? Agreement what is acceptable service? What about coverage on trains, many of which travel many miles through rural areas. All these questions and more will be debated during this event.
