The inconvenient truth of future 5G networks is that their increased high-speed bandwidth and use of the millimeter wave spectrum (the radio spectrum above 30 gigahertz) to achieve it, comes at a price: Those radio signals barely propagate around the corners of buildings.

To overcome this issue, the strategy has been a combination of small cells with massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antennas to increase coverage. Small cell deployment will be so extensive that the Small Cell Forum predicts 5G small cell will overtake 4G small cells by 2024. The total installed base of 5G or multimode small cells will reach 13.1 million by 2025, constituting more than one-third of the total small cells in use.

So, how do you manage to get all of these small cells dispersed throughout a city landscape where buildings are everywhere and there’s little open space for signals to travel?

Engineers at UK-headquartered Vodafone have come up with an ingenious solution: make manhole covers do double duty as antennas for mobile communications. This clever solution manages to avoid all the troubling issues that had worried many observers about the proliferation of small cells. It eliminates traffic disruptions from street construction and there are no antennas, awkwardly placed on buildings, marring the appearance of a neighborhood.