While the enthusiasm of manufacturers for 5G is just beginning to be felt, the government wanted to take a new step in the generalization of new mobile technologies among players in the tricolor industry. To do this, in October 2021 the government began an “operation seduction” with the latter, in the form of a “mission on industrial 5G”, placed under the responsibility of Philippe Herbert.
Charge was notably entrusted to the former executive of Dassault Systèmes and founder of the Pass French Tech label (now called FT120) to identify any obstacles to the adoption of 5G by French manufacturers and to propose concrete actions to make the new generation of mobile technologies more attractive.
Five months later, the mission led by Philippe Herbert identified seven main obstacles to the development of industrial 5G in France. And to point out the difficulties in accessing frequencies, the insufficient availability of suitable equipment and services, the difficulties in recruiting qualified personnel to deploy industrial 5G, the health and environmental impact of the new generation of mobile technologies or the lack of visibility and maturity of French and European industrial 5G ecosystems.
To remedy this, the Minister Delegate for Industry Agnès Pannier-Runacher and the Secretary of State for Digital Cédric O proposed this Thursday, the date of the report, various “quick responses to the recommendations” cited in the document.
The government announces the first measures
To facilitate access to frequencies and stimulate the development of industrial 5G use cases, the latter propose in particular to modify the decree relating to fees for the use of frequencies in the 2.6 GHz band and to initiate a reflection to facilitate access to frequencies on the 3.8 GHz – 4 GHz band. To accelerate the adoption of industrial 5G, the government will also soon launch a call for projects for the development of dedicated Fablab Campuses, intended to bring together the ecosystem in one place to better support manufacturers.
“5G is a key factor in our competitiveness, which supports the automation of industrial processes. The results of the 5G industrial mission are, in this respect, very enlightening. The implementation of these recommendations will enable French industry to continue the dynamic of reindustrialization and digitization that we have been driving for five years”, argued Agnès Pannier-Runachier following the submission of the report of the “Herbert mission”.
Faced with industrial disaffection for 5G, the government also announced the launch by France and Germany of a new joint call for projects to bring out projects on private 5G networks for industry. “This call for projects follows a first call for projects launched in 2021 and having supported four projects on 5G private networks. It will meet the connectivity needs of French and German industries, by strengthening a sovereign 5G ecosystem”, says the government side.
31 projects already funded
To date, the government indicates that it has supported 31 projects as part of its recovery plan and the 4and future investment program (PIA), for a total investment of 478 million euros (including 179 million euros in public funding). The executive cites in particular Spectronite’s 6G Hauling project, which aims to “define a new generation of transport networks for mobile operators by integrating cognitive radio technologies in the perspective of 5G and 6G deployments”.
The Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) 32+ fiber pair project also benefited from the plan concocted by the government. As its name suggests, this will aim to increase to more than 32 pairs of fibers the capacities on board the next optical telecommunications submarine networks, “to make possible capacities of the order of Petabit/s “, via an overhaul of all current equipment.
The government also cites WeAccess’s Convergence 5G project, carried out in partnership with Arelis-LGM and Grolleau, which plans to develop an integrated autonomous 5G access solution “for the deployment of small 5G sites”, or the GEO 5G project of Firecell, established in partnership with Stellantis, Axians, Euroutils, Miodex, TMF, AW2S and Sequans. This aims to develop an ultra-precise indoor location system for tools connected via private 5G networks, which will first be tested in a factory of the car manufacturer Stellantis.
Up to 1.7 billion euros of investments by 2025
The I-COM 5G project of Seamless Waves must for its part develop new electronic chips “reconfigurable, secure and with very low energy consumption for 5G base stations and for applications in defense and security”.
For its part, Kapteos’ TopTen project, developed in partnership with CEA-Leti and Telecom Paris, will aim to improve the accuracy of antenna tests and standardize them via an open platform that will require “no anechoic chamber, nor multiplicity of sensors, nor incessant re-calibrations”.
Finally, the Ekinops Simbade project, set up in partnership with IDIL, Le Verre Fluoré, Orange, the PhLAM laboratory, and Photonics Bretagne, will aim to see beyond the C frequency band (which is deployed from 3.4 to 4.2 GHz in transmission) to establish new methods of multiband optical transmission, with the objective of multiplying by 10 the bandwidth on the existing network.
As a reminder, the government indicated last July that investments in industrial 5G could go up to 735 million euros by 2025. They will make it possible, by leverage, to mobilize up to 1.7 billion investments over this period. According to the executive, 20,000 jobs could be created thanks to the generalization of 5G in the industry, until 2025.