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Tesla says it plans to roll out private 5G in its factories around the world
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The company says the network will reduce costs and save time.
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Porsche is another major automaker that has branched out into private networks.
Tesla is entering the private 5G business by deploying a network in its megafactory in Berlin.
The car company said about this initiative: 1 minute video Published on the X social network, the video begins with a man introducing himself as Pat, a member of the IT team at Tesla’s Giga Berlin factory.
“We were one of the first companies in the automotive manufacturing industry to bring private 5G to the industry at scale,” Pat asserts, “and here at Giga Berlin we were the first to actually do this and then scale it globally.”
He added, “Private 5G is the foundation for innovation and next generation operations in our manufacturing and warehousing facilities. Private 5G will enable mobile machines to communicate extremely reliably, keeping them running at all times.”
Pat introduced Ernesto, a member of the network team, and said, “Private 5G networks have really changed the way we deliver networks in many places in our factories, especially outdoors.” Outdoor networks traditionally required a lot of investment and time to deploy fiber and energy. Now, Tesla only needs to install small antennas on buildings to connect outdoor facilities.
Cost cutting seems especially important for a company like Tesla, which is currently undergoing intense layoffs.
The video did not say anything about the timescale for the global 5G rollout, or the network vendor for the project.
Tesla also did not disclose which frequency band it is using for its private network. The German regulator, the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA), allocated 5G licenses in the 3.7GHz/3.8GHz band for industrial use in November 2019, so it is likely that this is the frequency band that Tesla is using.
Other 5G private networks
Porsche is using the frequency band in collaboration with Ericsson for a private 5G research network at its factory in Leipzig, Germany, which is being used to test robotics and other use cases.
Porsche also claimed that it would deploy “Europe’s first 5G hybrid mobile private network” in December 2022 at its Nardo Technology Center in Italy in collaboration with Vodafone Business.
Meanwhile, in the U.S., carriers and vendors are working on multiple private 5G deployments at port facilities, mining sites and industrial areas. This week, Verizon announced the first neutrally hosted 5G private network in collaboration with Cummins in upstate New York.