With outrageous conspiracies being spread all over the Internet and anti-5gers trying to stop its roll-out, the deployment of 5G has been no easy task. It has almost become common to stumble upon a website making false claims about 5G being behind the Covid-19 pandemic. There’s a point where facts must be stated, and the facts are that so far, studies have shown that 5G technology is significantly more powerful than its predecessors – and it’s even good for the environment!
In Switzerland, the resistance has been particularly strong, with data companies like Swisscom stating that the mobile network is only growing by 5% each year. However, Swiss users are going to require a 30% increase based on current internet usage rates. Data congestion is imminent.
What hasn’t been addressed as a major advantage to implementing 5G, is its positive impact on climate change. It is crucial that we begin using energy efficient technology and that is exactly what 5G is. The University of Zurich and the Federal Research Institute Empa have now determined that 5G causes 86% less Greenhouse gas emissions per gigabyte transferred than today’s phone network. Internet traffic is going to increase by eightfold in 2030, but 5G will cause practically the same amount of greenhouse gases as today’s grid. On the contrary, if Switzerland sticks with 4G, the greenhouse gases will be eightfold what it is now.
Additionally, 5G enables flexible working like video conferencing because the stable connection it offers allows users to video conference even from a moving train. This will decrease greenhouse gases emitted from commuting to work. Precision farming, the digitalization of agriculture, will allow drones to survey crops for problem areas to spray pesticide or fertilizer on instead of spraying the entire field. The researchers also have the potential of intelligent control of the power grid and autonomous driving. While these technologies would only save about 2 percent of Switzerland emissions, as these practices become more widely used, that number will increase.
Researchers believe other future innovations could include better monitoring Swiss waste streams to more efficiently recycle. The 5G network has the capacity to support the different networks we now have that all have different functions from a single source. Also, we could develop control of our energy and water usage with 5G. All in all, these advances would only be beneficial for us and for our everyday life, no matter what anti-5Gers claim all over social media.
Read the full study here.
ReclaimTheFacts
Emma Suleiman
