Flanders Smart Fields: 5G rural coverage for
innovative healthcare services in the Westhoek
By accelerating the deployment of high-end 5G network infrastructure in rural areas like the Westhoek, the Province of West-Flanders wants to strengthen the socio-economic activities in that region.
The Westhoek region, better known as "Flanders Fields", has high historical value as a major battle theatre on the Western Front during the First World War. This rural area is a very popular touristic region but also has lots of socio-economic challenges mainly related to the poor logistical accessibility.
Due to the valuable and protected landscapes, the region lacks highways and other infrastructure to facilitate fast and efficient transportation.
This leads to a vicious circle of companies, institutions and organizations migrating to other regions and with them employment opportunities and in the end also employees. To revive the socio-economical activities and put a stop to the brain drain, the region has the ambition to become one of the first smart and connected rural areas.
By making this peaceful region digitally accessible and providing various mobile services, it will significantly increase the quality of life for the aging population but also attract younger generations where work-life fluidity, sharing culture and digital connectivity is the new normal. However the open space and low population density makes the region commercially not attractive to telecom operators resulting in poor mobile broadband connectivity.
The lack of infrastructure and coverage today is blocking the deployment of innovative services whilst there is a clear need and will to engage with 5G technology with stakeholders in the region. Various healthcare institutions, amongst them the Jan Yperman hospital, have expressed their interest to connect not only their main campus with its local satellites but also with first response vehicles and other mobile units. By providing rural 5G coverage, this will be the first of many services to be deployed making Flanders Fields Smarter.
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