The Mobile World Congress, the mobile high mass that takes place every year in Barcelona, opened its doors on Monday. In recent years, the event had largely turned to the general public. It was, in particular, a privileged moment for smartphone manufacturers to present their new terminals. But for this edition, marked by a return of the big names in new technologies after two years of pandemic, all have their eyes riveted on businesses and manufacturers. Operators and telecom equipment manufacturers hope to convert them without delay to 5G, and to their new private 5G networks. This technology is presented as the royal road to digitize all the major sectors of the economy, from energy to transport, via the automobile, banking or even health.
In this area, China has great ambitions, seeing industrial 5G as a powerful economic catalyst. This was hammered home by the CEOs of the three major operators in the Middle Kingdom, the behemoths China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, who all took part in the opening conference of the show. Same story with the telecom equipment manufacturer Huawei, which offered itself the largest space at the event to boast of its know-how. It must be said that in terms of 5G, the Middle Kingdom, of which 60% of the population is covered by this technology, has a head start vis-à-vis Europe, and does everything to outdo the pawn in the United States.
5G eliminates cables in factories
Today, in factories, machines and other robots are usually connected via cables. 5G and private networks make it possible to eliminate them, and provide essential flexibility to optimize processes and boost competitiveness. The benefits are multiple. In China, some mining groups see these solutions as a holy grail to increase efficiency, reduce their staff, while exposing them less to the many risks inherent in this activity. According to Jérôme Danneel, engineer at Huawei France, the deployment of mobile 5G antennas on mining sites now makes it possible to manage a number of operations remotely, from drilling to ore transport. Huawei deploys similar solutions in the petrochemical industry or in ports. In Qingdao, in eastern China, terminals have been fully automated to optimize the loading and unloading of goods.
In the eyes of Huawei, private 5G networks are a guarantee of security, appreciable when all the company’s assets are connected to them and depend on this infrastructure. The Shenzhen group hopes to take advantage of its lead in this area to export its solutions abroad. And this even if the Shenzhen group has been excluded, for reasons of security and sovereignty, from many 5G markets in the United States and Europe.
Europe’s backwardness
On the Old Continent, telecom equipment manufacturers Nokia and Ericsson are also betting big on the development of industrial 5G and private networks. But on this front, Europe accuses a look “one to two years compared to China”, concedes Franck Bouétard, CEO of Ericsson France. Nothing very surprising when you know that in France, less than 10% of the population is covered by 5G via the new 3.5 GHz frequencies, which offer high speeds. That said, “we have more and more requests for private networks”, continues the leader. Ericsson, for example, equips Airbus, EDF’s nuclear power plants, or certain sites of the steel giant ArcelorMittal. In the latter case, mobile connectivity makes it possible to carry out maintenance operations remotely with augmented or virtual reality tools, to locate assets, or even to pilot shuttles remotely. However, these are private 4G networks, which are less efficient than their 5G counterparts. “We can upgrade them later to 5G, but we have to go through a learning phase”explains Franck Bouétard.
In the United States, private 5G networks are also on the rise. At the head of Verizon Business, the branch dedicated to companies of the American operator, Tami Erwin sees in it an asset to develop the ” edge computing ” In the enterprises. This makes it possible, in short, to process heaps of data from operations and assets connected directly on site. The leader also praises the high level of security of these solutions. This, she says, is one of the main reasons why BlackRock, the American asset management behemoth, chose Verizon to deploy a private 5G network in its new headquarters in New York. The high speeds offered by this solution and the low latency will improve operations, especially in trading rooms.
