As the Councillor champion for Digital Innovation in Wolverhampton, I want to highlight the importance of ensuring we all stay connected.
That’s why I was extremely dissapointed to hear that 5G workers in the city were subjected to verbal abuse and threatening behavior this week. This disgusting behaviour is happening because of baseless conspiracy theories which have linked 5G to Covid-19.
These are baseless myths which have been debunked by scientists, by NHS England and by the World Health Organisation. To be clear, there is absolutely no link between 5G and Covid-19. This disease can be transmitted through respiratory droplets and contaminated surfaces, it cannot be transmitted through radio waves or through mobile phone networks.
We will not tolerate abuse to any of our frontline workers who put themselves at risk each day to work on our networks to make sure the city can stay connected. We all have a role to play in keeping the city safe and connected.
The conspiracy theories are putting lives at risk. Our emergency services rely on our mobile networks for communication and to respond to calls for help. If you hear of abuse to telecommunications workers or vandalism, we encourage you to report this to the police. If you come across conspiracy theories or myths, we encourage you to challenge these. Be part of the solution, not the problem.
Respected scientists at the World Health Organisation and NHS leaders have widely debunked and discredited bogus and totally unevidenced claims suggesting links between 5G mobile technology and coronavirus. Such conspiracy theories are scientifically impossible – viruses cannot travel on radio waves/mobile networks.
Wolverhampton is a pioneer in the roll out of 5G technology which offers mobile internet as fast as full fibre with speeds up to 1GB. It has huge capacity to connect thousands of uses and devices at consistently ultrafast speeds. It is ultra-reliable, secure and low latency (doesn’t drop connections) which could be transformational for industry and the city as a whole.