Welcome To The 5G New Thinking Rural Connectivity Toolkit
building and operating their own next-generation communications networks
As the world continues to become more and more digitally connected, access to good connectivity is becoming increasingly important in the everyday activities of consumers, businesses, communities, and public service providers. In the UK, Government ambitions for improving coverage of broadband and mobile services have led to various regulations and policies aimed at making it easier to achieve connectivity, especially in remote rural areas. Coupling this with new developments in technology, we are now at the point where communities really can build their own wide-area, high-bandwidth and cost-effective next-generation networks. Such networks could provide traditional broadband and mobile services for local consumers and businesses, but they could also be 'private' networks for the local sports ground or football stadium, or temporary 'pop-up' networks for events or festivals, for example. These have the potential to bring real and tangible benefits to rural communities - e.g. enabling live streaming of local sports events, reaching fans across the globe and creating opportunities for improved fan interaction.
Enabling digital connectivity in rural areas is challenging though. Suitable locations for mast sites are often difficult to access and it can be difficult to get equipment to them; cable runs (for optical fibre, electrical power, etc.) can be long and expensive to install; customers are sparsely populated and the business case is challenging. But despite such challenges, there is much that communities themselves can do to enable digital connectivity in their areas.
Each community is different, of course, with different connectivity requirements and different operating environments, along with different inherent skills and capabilities. You will almost certainly need to engage the services of professional consultants and service providers, but there is much that you can do yourselves!
Introducing the 5GNT Rural Connectivity Toolkit
The 5G New Thinking Rural Toolkit is a practical guide for rural and poorly-connected communities who are considering building and operating their own next-generation communications networks. It contains information and guidance aimed at helping you to create your business plan, design and build your network, and then operate the network and run your business. Click on the following links for further details:
- Create Your Business Plan
This involves identifying your community's needs and the applications and use cases that the network will need to support, as well as working out the business models and the associated cost/revenue analyses and setting up the community enterprise organization that will secure the funding and finance to build and operate the network and 'run the business' going forward. - Plan and Build Your Network
Your network may include optical fibre runs, radio access networks, point-to-point microwave links, masts and electrical power facilities, all of which needs to be planned and designed. You'll need to consider coverage and capacity requirements, end-user devices, access to radio spectrum, access to mast sites and associated planning consent, network security, etc, etc. - Operate Your Network and 'Run Your Business'
Once you've got the business plan defined and the network built, you're ready to start preparing for the operation of the network and running the business.
The Toolkit also contains Interactive Tools that you can use to explore and evaluate business models and business cases, and to help you to plan your network and obtain suitable spectrum licences.
Finally, we have provided a Checklist to help you to coordinate and track your progress as you work through the various decisions associated with designing and building your community connectivity solution.
In addition to the above links which provide guidance on planning, building, and operating your community network, we have also provided some Other Useful Information which includes Case Studies and information on various other 5G rural connectivity projects throughout the UK, as well as some notes on 5G and public health.
A note on finding your way around the Toolkit...
You can find your way around the Toolkit by clicking on the sidebar menu symbol in the top left corner of each page. The sidebar will then appear with a list of all of the pages contained in the Toolkit, and you can click on any of these to take you to corresponding page.
