What is 5G used for? Antennas installed on the forecourt of La Défense (Hauts-de-Seine), between the shopping center and the Grande Arche, may provide an answer. The latest very high-speed mobile telephony technology is indeed struggling to take off: as of March 31, 2022, France had 4.1 million 5G users, sixteen times fewer than in 4G, according to the latest figures from the telecoms policeman. The local public establishment Paris La Défense, which manages the business district, therefore launched, at the end of July, a double “call to experience” this local network for telecom operators and companies wishing to test new applications.
The new network transmits in the 26 gigahertz (GHz) frequency band, a space never before used by mobile telephony. These very high frequencies have a defect: they work over short distances. But they are ideal for transporting data in very large quantities and at very high speed over a concentrated area, such as a stadium, an industrial site or a station. Other experiments are underway to explore this technology. For example, the national velodrome of Montigny-le-Bretonneux (Yvelines) is testing, with France Télévisions, a restitution of competitions in augmented video, in anticipation of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
At the foot of the Grande Arche, the candidates for the experiments will have carte blanche. “We do not yet know what 5G at 26 GHz would allow for companies and Defense employees. It just takes creativity”, explains Pierre-Yves Guice, Managing Director of Paris La Défense. One of the avenues would be to use this 5G network to control the infrastructures of the district (energy, water, roads, tunnels, etc.) or the remote surveillance system, all equipment which uses a network of cables subject to natural or to vandalism.
Tests end of 2022 or beginning of 2023
But with its 180,000 employees and 600,000 people in daily transit, La Défense, Europe’s leading business district, is above all an ideal playground for more commercial or personal applications. “The test should also allow us to verify the social utility of 5G and the hypothesis of mass economic use”recognizes Mr. Guice.
It is also to ensure that the new waves do not create electromagnetic disturbances on the area. Not to mention IT security, while La Défense is home to many headquarters of large groups, such as TotalEnergies, Engie or Société Générale. The tests must also make it possible to measure the energy consumption of such a network. For its part, the National Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health Safety will monitor issues related to exposure to electromagnetic waves.
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