The Dutch Ministries of the Interior and Defence are looking into whether satellites in the Frisian town of Burum may need to be moved due to interference from 5G testing.
Translation by Traci White
Dagblad van het Noorden reports that the work carried out by the satellites, which are part of Military Intelligence and Security Service of the Netherlands, could be hindered by 5G testing in the region.
5G is the successor to 4G cellular communications, and the north is actively working to become a testing ground for the far faster technology, which has a range of applications: 5Groningen is running a handful of pilot projects focused on agriculture, energy, health care logistics and the living environment.
“Big ears” in Burum
Rolling out 5G presents a problem for the “big ears” – the satellite ground station – in Burum in Friesland: the 3.5 GigaHertz frequency of 5G cellular communications would interfere with the signals which the intelligence services receive there. The Ministries of the Interior and Defence are evaluating whether further implementation of 5G would mean they need to move the satellites to continue working correctly.
In the coming days, Secretary of State Mona Keizer is expected to announce how the government cabinet plans to address the development and implementation of the 5G network. A study on potential ways that the 5G networks and the intelligence activity in Burum carried out by TNO, the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research, will inform Keizer’s decision next week.
Smart potatoes
A feature article in NRC last week described a number of the 5G projects being developed in Groningen, from smart potatoes that can measure soil conditions to cars that rely on the technology to drive. “KPN, Vodafone, Huawei, Ericsson, Surf and Agentschap Telecom are experimenting with drones, cars, boats and sensors” that utilise 5G at the testing grounds, NRC writes.
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