Tokenism has characterized many initiatives to bridge the digital divide. Despite generous government funding, efforts to close the digital divide bog down in the costs and complexity of deploying broadband technologies. Fixed cable networks, for example, entail enormous costs of acquiring rights of way aggravated by the spadework that goes into laying cables and deployment challenges in most underserved regions, such as rural areas and low-density locations.
Consequently, underwhelming accomplishments such as low-quality connectivity or token coverage in a census area without necessarily all the residents are passed off as mission accomplished. However, this is no longer tenable as the uses of digital applications are rising rapidly in almost all walks of life, and those who can’t access them can fall behind economically and socially.
A new hope for the underserved
The numbers of those who lack access to broadband are underestimated with current methods of estimation by the FCC. BroadbandNow, a broadband advocacy organization, estimates that more than 42 million Americans lacked broadband access in 2021. By contrast, the official FCC estimates the number was 14.5 million in 2020. The discrepancy occurs because the FCC count assumes that all households are covered even when only one household has connectivity in a census block.
The landscape for connectivity has changed with a choice of CBRS Cellular, Fixed Wireless Access (FWA), satellite wireless, or a combination of them, which promise to expand wireless coverage in unserved regions. T-Mobile, for example, plans to increase FWA subscribers to 7-8 million over the next five years. AT&T covers one million subscribers in rural locations with fixed wireless technologies using the CBRS spectrum. The propagation characteristics of CBRS spectrum allow wide coverage in sparsely populated regions with high-bandwidth networks.
Substituting cable networks with Fixed Wireless Access
The apparently self-contradictory term Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) is suggestive of its nature and use cases. Similar to wired cable networks, it communicates between two fixed points, terminating the data at relatively long distances of 5-10 miles. The distance range helps to connect high-density locations with relatively lower-density regions. Last-mile connections link the access point to the customer at the terminating point. The deployment of FWA in the Scottish Highlands is emblematic of the tremendous odds it overcomes to bring connectivity to remote areas.
By contrast to wired cable networks, the cost of the network is much lower, by as much as 80%. FWA saves costs because it transmits packets wirelessly, usually in the 2.5 GHz to 5 GHz range. It provides a relatively high-quality bandwidth of 1 Gbps.
Fixed Wireless and Satellite to close gaps in coverage in rural areas
Nothing beats satellite communications in the extent of coverage—quite simply, it is 100%. The rub is the coverage comes with high latency with geostationary satellites and low bandwidth. The bandwidth has increased with low-orbit satellites. Starlink promises bandwidth of 1 Gbps eventually though currently, it achieves peak rates of 100Mbps down and 20Mbps up. The more significant barrier to the adoption of satellite usage is its susceptibility to signal degradation as a result of obstruction by trees. Starlink attempts to overcome the signal degradation with a massive constellation of satellites (in the thousands) only to interfere with the radio signals of other devices. Despite the blanketing with satellites, signal drops are common with satellites, and the impairment of the quality of service limits the applications that can be used.
As a result, an attempt is underway to combine satellite and fixed wireless communications to achieve the quality of service, low costs, and coverage. The demand for high-bandwidth broadband communications is rising rapidly with the growth of precision agriculture in rural areas.
Mobile communications help to gather data in real-time and use nutrients proportionate to the current needs of plants. The current needs of plants grown can be gauged with the data from imaging technologies and sensors, which read, for example, the plant status, soil texture, and water-holding capabilities. AI processes the data to determine the pesticide and fertilizer application as weeds are identified within or beside crops. Additionally, drone-mounted sensors use optical sensors to read from visible and near-infrared bands the state of soil and crops’ health to automatically control instruments for improving crop yields.
Additional applications are in animal husbandry to remotely monitor disease and prevent it before an infection spreads and destroys entire herds, dairy, or meat products withdrawn from the market. Similarly, electronic monitoring can reduce post-harvest wastage from damage that could be caused, for example, during transportation by temperatures of cold chains not maintained at the required levels.
Verizon and Amazon, for example, are collaborating to expand coverage in rural areas with a combination of 5G and satellite. Where feasible, coverage will be provided with fixed wireless access and cellular 5G. Satellites will close the gaps in connectivity. Nationwide low-orbit satellite communications are not expected until 2029.
Conclusion
The demand for high-bandwidth communications in rural areas is rising for meeting the needs of applications much more than the urge to serve social needs. Its growth is relentless due to a surge in innovation in agricultural and other technologies. New applications for precision agriculture can be developed with more data that is gathered with networks. The demand for coverage with superior quality of service is driving innovation in networking technologies and their convergence as new ways are found to reach the underserved. As yet, it is uncertain what will emerge from this ferment.
