Since 5G began its rollout in 2018 or 2019, fifth-generation wireless networks have spread across the globe to cover hundreds of millions of users. But while it offers lower latency than precursor networks, 5G also requires more base stations. To avoid installing unsightly equipment on more and more shared spaces, Japanese companies are developing transparent glass antennas that allow windows to serve as base stations that can be shared by several carriers.
Because 5G networks include spectrum comprising higher frequencies than 4G, base stations for 5G networks serve a smaller coverage footprint. Which means more base stations are needed compared to 4G. Due to a lack of installation spots and the high cost of rolling out 5G networks, carriers in Japan have been sharing mobile infrastructure.
Last month the Tokyo-based communications company JTower announced the deployment of the new glass antenna, created in part by glassmaker AGC (one of the world’s largest) and the mobile carrier NTT Docomo. The first was installed on a window in Tokyo’s Shinjuku district.
The product is “the world’s first antenna that turns a window into a base station that can be attached to a building window inside and turn the outdoors into a service area without spoiling the cityscape or the exterior appearance of the building,” says Shota Ochiai, a marketing manager at AGC.
NTT Docomo reports that it uses transparent conductive materials as the basis for its antenna, sandwiching the conductive material along with a transparent resin, the kind used in laminated windshields, in between two sheets of glass.
“I don’t think the idea for using transparent conductive materials as an antenna existed before,” said AGC’s Kentaro Oka in a company statement. “The durability of the antenna was significantly increased by placing the conductive materials between glass.”
The transparent antenna can be engineered according to the thickness of the glass to reduce the attenuation and reflection of the radio signals being absorbed and emitted by the window-sized device. “The glass antenna uses our proprietary technology to smooth out the disruption in the direction of radio waves when they pass through a window,” says Ochia.
A brief history of the window antenna
Branded WAVEANTENNA, the antenna is installed on the interior surface of windows. Apart perhaps from its cabling, the WAVEANTENNA is an otherwise inconspicuous piece of equipment that is often tucked out of sight, placed near the top or otherwise at the edges of a window.
It is compatible with frequencies in the 5G Sub6 band—meaning signals that are less than 6 gigahertz (GHz). Sub6 antennas represent critical portions of a 5G deployment, as their lower frequency ranges penetrate barriers like walls and buildings better than the substantially higher-bandwidth millimeter-wave portions of the 5G spectrum.
An earlier version of the product was launched in 2020, while a version that could handle sharing by multiple cell networks was introduced last year, according to AGC. The company says its antenna is optimized for frequencies between 3.7 and 4.5 GHz bands, which still allows for substantial bandwidth—albeit not comparable with what an ideal millimeter-wave 5G deployment could reach. (Millimeter waves can deliver typically between 10 and 50 GHz of bandwidth.)
The glass antenna can help expand 5G coverage as infrastructure sharing will become more important to carriers, AGC says. Besides increasing the number of locations for base stations, the device makes it easier to select the appropriate installation height, according to Ochiai.
AGC has also applied 5G glass antennas to automobiles, where they can help reduce dropped signals. The company reports that users include Halo.Car, an on-demand EV rental service in Las Vegas that relies on high-speed networks for remote drivers to deliver cars to customers.
2023 was the hottest year ever recorded on the planet — by far. More than halfway in, 2024 is on track to exceed it, with July the hottest month on record and July 22 the hottest day.
Everyone is feeling it — energy bills are up, social plans are disrupted, sleep and exercise are more elusive. In early care and education, children and caregivers are finding that it’s disrupting their everyday routines and experiences.
“The heat is different this year for us,” says Tessie Ragan, owner of Perfect Start Learning, a licensed home-based child care program in Rosamond, California, which she describes as the “desert part” of the state.
By the end of June, temperatures regularly approached or exceeded 100 degrees Fahrenheit in her Southern California community.
Although Ragan runs a nature-based summer camp for 3- to 6-year-olds, the weather made it impossible for them to be outside some days.
“It’s just too hot for them,” she concedes. “Some of the kids started breathing heavy. It just made it miserable for them to be outside.”
Without a shade structure or heat-resistant playground equipment, much of Tessie Ragan's backyard is unsafe for children in her program during the hottest weeks of the summer. Photo courtesy of Ragan.
Extreme heat can be dangerous for anyone, but it’s especially troubling for young children.
Children under age 5 are physically more susceptible to the negative effects of extreme heat, explains Allie Schneider, an early childhood education policy analyst at the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank that recently published a report on the topic.
Our sector is not prepared for this.
— Angie Garling
Little kids’ bodies heat up faster and cool down slower. They have fewer sweat glands. And any hit to their sleep or concentration can have a deleterious effect on their learning and development, Schneider says. Plus, when temperatures are up, air quality tends to go down, which is also worse for kids, who inhale and exhale about twice as often as adults.
As temperatures trend upward, already-hot places like Rosamond are getting hotter, while more temperate regions that have long escaped a need for indoor air conditioning and outdoor heat-mitigation systems are now having to adjust to a new normal.
That’s putting a strain on early care and education programs, which are responsible — first and foremost — for keeping kids safe and healthy, but seldom have access to the funds needed to add or upgrade heat-mitigation systems.
“They absolutely do not have the infrastructure that they need,” says Angie Garling, senior vice president of early care and education at Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF), a national community development financial institution with an early care and education team focused on investing in the child care ecosystem. “Our sector is not prepared for this.”
Garling often hears from child care providers, whose messages boil down to this: “I know about kids. I know what I need for kids. Somebody needs to help me figure out the rest.”
Providers want support figuring out how to navigate, prioritize and afford solutions like solar panels and HVAC systems.
“They’re also very cost conscious, because they’re severely underpaid and under-reimbursed,” Garling adds.
Ragan has been running her summer camp for years. She used to start it after her program’s school year ended in May, with camp running for six weeks, from the first of June to mid-July.
A few years ago, grappling with extreme heat that had become “insane,” she had to reconsider her approach.
“We could not be comfortable or safe outside,” Ragan recalls. She says she was scared for the kids. “They all started turning bright red. No matter how much water I gave them. … They slowed down and weren’t enjoying themselves.”
She adds: “It made it impossible for us to have actual, meaningful summer camp activities.”
The plastic play equipment would get so hot it could burn a child’s skin. The overhang on her house only extended so far, leaving much of the backyard exposed to the sun. She couldn’t afford to buy a misting system or a larger shade structure or wooden playground equipment — all thousands of dollars apiece — to ease the situation.
The roof on Tessie Ragan's home covers a portion of the backyard, offering kids in her program a shaded patio. But the sun-exposed area is often too hot for children. Photo courtesy of Ragan.
“It didn’t seem like it was in the children’s best interest for me to run the summer camp [if] we didn’t have the ability to be outside as much as they need to be outside,” says Ragan, who talks about the importance of outdoor play for kids’ gross motor development.
She decided to abbreviate camp going forward, wrapping up at the end of June. That meant losing two weeks of income, but it would allow her to cut out two of the hottest weeks of the summer.
Ragan made a personal sacrifice to prioritize children’s health. As a provider, she knows what signs to look out for and when kids might be reaching their limit.
Because young children are less able to recognize and communicate when they are experiencing symptoms of heat exhaustion, it falls to the caregivers in their lives to notice and respond.
That is an important but tricky responsibility, says Schneider, since there is no standardized guidance for caregivers. Some pediatricians say that anything above 85 degrees could harm a child’s health, she notes, but it’s difficult to pinpoint a single temperature, since humidity, sun exposure and exertion are factors to consider.
Still, Schneider believes clear guidance is both achievable and necessary for early childhood programs and providers in the near term, but she stops short of saying there should be any requirements around it.
“One hesitation we have about including a specific, enforceable requirement in child care licensing programs, is that it does present a financial barrier for providers who are already operating on very thin margins,” she explains.
Garling, at LIIF Fund, agrees — and believes that’s why early childhood should be prioritized for climate adaptations. These include outdoor improvements such as heat-resistant play equipment, misting systems, trees, solar panels and shade structures, as well as indoor upgrades like insulated windows, air purifiers and electric HVAC systems.
“Businesses can benefit, and therefore children can benefit,” Garling says. “Children can be inside in a healthy way, and they can be outside.”
We’re worried about paying our bills, paying our staff. It leaves very little — almost nothing — to save for something like this.
— Nancy Harvey
Nancy Harvey, a home-based provider in Oakland, California, has welcomed some climate adaptations in her home over the last year.
With the help of a grant from LIIF, Harvey was able to replace an outdated heating system and get air conditioning in her home for the first time. (That grant is part of the work LIIF is managing on behalf of the state of California to help about 4,000 providers expand and improve their physical spaces.)
Oakland doesn’t experience some of the extreme temperatures that many other parts of the country do, Harvey acknowledges, but it can still get up into the 90s in the summer and down to the 40s in the winter.
Last October, Harvey got a ductless mini-split heat pump installed in the ceiling on the first floor of her home. The placement alone is a huge relief, she says, since her old system was a wall heater that she always feared a child would burn themselves on (she had a plastic lattice cover on it for safety, but says: “Has that ever stopped a child?”)
With the help of a grant, Nancy Harvey received a new energy-efficient ductless mini-split heat pump, making her house more comfortable during winter and summer. Photo courtesy of LIIF.
The new system has made the inside of Harvey’s house more comfortable during both winter and summer, she says.
“This is a learning environment,” she emphasizes. “[Now], we don’t have to worry. It enables the children to focus and have a better educational environment.”
Without the grant, she never would have been able to afford these upgrades, Harvey says.
“We don’t have enough funding. We’re worried about paying our bills, paying our staff,” she says. “It leaves very little — almost nothing — to save for something like this.”
Extreme heat can cause real, serious health effects, especially for children with asthma and other respiratory issues. But many people are quick to point out that, when it’s too hot for children to be outside, they are also denied key gross motor development opportunities and quintessential experiences of being a kid.
“Children this age — they love outdoor play,” says Harvey. “They thrive on it. It is certainly a very big disappointment when they can’t go outside and breathe in clean air, fresh air.”
Harvey has woven numerous outdoor activities into her program, from painting outside to riding bicycles to setting up a “castle” they can play in.
When they're stuck inside — due to extreme temperatures or bad air quality from wildfire smoke — “they miss all of that,” she says. “Those are important developmental activities that they’re not able to enjoy when we’re forced to be inside.”
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