5G presents transformative solutions for municipal operations throughout our nation. The legislative and management leaders within a community rely on insights from data collected directly from operations and other sources to enable mission-critical decisions. This is all made possible by the confluence of 5G, big data analytics, and artificial intelligence.
As a result, the traditional way of running a town’s operation is being transformed into one of high velocity, efficiency, and reduced cost. In addition, the applications and solutions enabled by a 5G public or private network allow town operations to unlock value, enhance citizens’ experience and engagement, and also increase economic development.
A utility operator in a small town can receive real-time data over the 5G network on the health of a wastewater treatment facility without being physically present at the plant. Further, the operator can access platforms to implement corrective actions for operational failures at the plant. A drone and other autonomous vehicles on the 5G network can run security surveillance on thousands of acres of reservoir property to detect and enable rapid response to any threats to a town’s water supply.
Transportation studies and analysis become an ongoing exercise based on vital pedestrian and vehicular traffic data being captured in real-time and transmitted for storage and analysis. Gone are the days of $300 thousand traffic studies for small communities. Instead, well-placed 5G-enabled traffic applications coupled with GIS devices replace the need for rubber strips on roads to count cars and the deployment of labor-intensive resources to conduct traffic studies.
Public Safety
Policing as we know it also changes. For example, a drone with access to facial recognition solutions can quickly identify a perpetrator in a vehicle and use data analysis to predict the destination of the vehicle and alert officers to be prepared to apprehend the suspect at the destination within a certain period of time, avoiding a high-speed chase that would place innocent individuals at risk.
It takes visionary leadership to make the promise of 5G a reality. The vision of communities across the United States is documented in a community’s Comprehensive Plan. Leaning in on the vision for our community, five to ten years into the future, the Town of Purcellville inserted language in our Comprehensive Plan to support the advancement and integration of drone technology.
More importantly, the Town of Purcellville passed a resolution to pursue the deployment of fiber optics whenever feasible during construction projects. This is called a “one dig” policy, where whenever a street has been excavated for construction, the municipal seeks lay fiber optic cables in the trenches prior to completing the street work.
Without fiber optic cables, edge computing deployments, and connection, the promise of 5G is impossible. Fiber optics cables connect the transmission towers of a 5G network and ensure virtually unlimited, ubiquitous connectivity for blazing uploads and downloads.
In addition, fiber optic networks are viewed as future-proof because once it’s buried, they can function for over 40 years, and their data-carrying capacity can be almost infinitely upgraded without digging up the cable merely by swapping out the electronics that encode and power the pulses of light that travel within its walls.
A Town that embraces the opportunity to deploy fiber throughout its community as mid-mile and last-mile access will be transformed into a technologically, socially, and economically advanced community.
This all begins with the vision being documented in the community’s comprehensive plan and then planned and executed by the legislative and operational arms of the Town government. Fiber is the foundation or the bones that 5G stands upon, invest in it or be left behind.
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