This week, Sarah Eynon, Associate Director of Scottish Futures Trust, joins our #Talking5G series to give an insight into the social impacts 5G will have on individuals and communities and the associated considerations.  

Sarah led the establishment of the Scotland 5G Centre, which is helping aid the adoption and deployment of 5G across Scotland.

In our third instalment of our #Talking5G series, Sarah explains 5G’s ability to revolutionise the way we live, alongside bridging the digital divide. She explains how edge computing and distributed storage, aided by 5G, will replace the need for laptops and computers with large storage capacities as all data can be stored and instantaneously accessed from the Cloud.  

This will ultimately reduce technology costs, broadening access to new employment opportunities and creating a “more equal society” through enabling greater accessibility.  

Sarah also outlines how this equality also applies to rural communities which may be technologically under-developed, stimulating expansion and increasing job prospects. As part of the governing board for the Scotland 5G Centre, Sarah strives to ensure 5G provides access to all through the S5GConnect project, allowing SMEs across Scotland to access 5G test beds.

Finally, Sarah explained how 5G will diversify our options, such as providing the potential for personalised health care. This will allow patients to track and manage their healthcare in a proactive way from home, reducing the reactive pressure on hospitals and GP services. Through all these developments, and deployments Sarah urges that innovation be inclusive to take varying needs and individual attitudes into account.  Although 5G’s prospects of personalised healthcare, through to virtual learning and remote working is revolutionary to the way we currently live, learn and work, it is just as essential that 5G is developed with no single user in mind, so it is suitable and accessible for all so as to ensure its successful adoption and realisation of the associated benefits.

Learn more about Sarah Eynon via LinkedIn.