In February 2020, Iliad chose Nokia to deploy its future 5G networks in France and Italy. A little less than three years later, this partnership is entering a new phase, with the deployment of 5G coverage within the Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) factory in Calais, in Hauts-de-France. This subsidiary of Nokia manufactures and lays submarine cables intended to transit global electronic communications. Xavier Niel’s group and the Finnish equipment manufacturer present this industrial site as “the largest 5G connected factory in Europe”.
To implement this project, 59 5G antennas were installed by the Free Mobile and Free Pro teams to cover an area of 50,000 m² out of the 160,000 m² of ASN’s industrial site. In this context, the Nokia Digital Automation Cloud solution was chosen, so as to create a private 5G network with a dedicated core network. This device should allow this factory to switch to the era of industry 4.0, which aims to improve the circulation and use of data on industrial sites in order to optimize their operation.
A 5G stand-alone to enter the era of the connected factory
Indeed, such a private network, also known as 5G stand-alone, makes it possible to better deal with industrial issues, with an increase in throughput and a reduction in latency that would not be possible with consumer 5G. This industrial 5G is also designed to support the network slicingi.e. the compartmentalization of the network between different tasks and/or connected devices, according to the needs required for each of them.
On the ASN site in Calais, several use cases are now made possible by this private network, such as the digitization of manufacturing procedures, the real-time filling measurement of the 130 fiber optic cable storage tanks, the remote maintenance assistance, or the analysis of production incidents. Industrial applications of 5G which should also soon see the light of day in the English factory of ASN, in Greenwich. In it, eight indoor 5G emission points should cover the main building by the end of the year.
Still too little experimentation in industrial 5G
By positioning itself as a potential operator of this industrial 5G, Free is gaining credibility on the B2B market, where the French subsidiary of Iliad landed in 2021 with its Freebox Pro. A year and a half after its launch, the Free Pro offer has attracted 30,000 customers, including 1,000 ETIs and key accounts. To further reach the latter, the company Jaguar Network, which carries the operator’s ambitions in the professional segment, has also changed its name to officially become Free Pro. The deployment of 5G in the ASN plant in Calais is also part of this approach.
If the government welcomes such initiatives, France is still far from the mark, as noted in a report on industrial 5G submitted at the beginning of the year to the ministers in charge of Industry and Digital. “Industrial 5G is the subject of real voluntarism and strong public policies, around a small number of ‘activist’ industrialists. However, these initiatives remain few in number. French industrialists are in the vast majority in a posture that is sometimes ‘informed’ and most often ‘wait-and-see’ vis-à-vis a technology of which they expect to have a better understanding and a greater number of feedback”, wrote the authors of the report. Operators and telecom equipment manufacturers are therefore expected at the turn, and will have to amplify this dynamic of experimentation in the years to come.