German chemical company BASF will deploy a private 5G network at its facilities in the Belgian port of Antwerp with the help of local networking specialist Citymesh. The development actually follows a number of Industry 4.0 trials related to mobile phones in the region, and is being touted in local newspapers as the “first private 5G network” at the port. is linked, RCR wireless It is understood that the Government will this week pledge €20 million to 21 business-related 5G projects. French carrier group Orange will lead at least 11 of these new plans.
The suggestion that the new Citymesh facility, which will be built over two years at BASF facilities in the port area, will be a “first” in the port area seems interesting. Belgian carrier Proximus said it signed a deal with the Port Authority three years ago to develop a private 5G network to drive the digital transformation of port companies and services. The Proximus project was initially locked into a six-month pilot phase to test various Industry 4.0 applications.
Additionally, Orange previously announced it would set up a wide-area private 5G campus testbed at the port, and BASF will join a “first wave” of industrial companies at the site, including chemical company Borealis and polymer maker Covestro. They are lined up. The Port Authority itself. The work focused on port logistics, ship-to-shore data streaming, remote AR and on-site inspection, AI-powered quality inspection, and critical communications. That was two and a half years ago.
Perhaps this timing may explain the perceived novelty of new private 5G installations, as higher-grade industrial 5G NR became available in releases 16 and 17 of the 3GPP standard. These other installations may have done the trick, but failed as commercial exercises. It may also actually, and likely, ultimately rely more on private LTE (4G) than 5G. Furthermore, both announcements now appear to be wide-area projects that will rely, in part or in whole, on licensed spectrum and carrier infrastructure.
But even if both the country’s widespread public 5G rollout and private 5G regulations have been slow, the Port of Antwerp has also shown itself to be a lively site for mobile phone-based Industry 4.0 experimentation. But Citymesh, a pioneer in the private network game, has its own spectrum, including at least 100 MHz in the 3.5 GHz band plus about 700 MHz, and has an enterprise MVNO agreement with his Proximus in the country, leading the industry. For several years his 4.0 cellular.
The company has already installed a private mobile phone network at the port of Zeebrugge and Brussels Airport. Local reports also mention institutions in Genk and Wallonia, without mentioning the exact location or author. However, Citymesh claims to work with over 75 Belgian cities, as well as a number of major exhibition centres, medical facilities, warehouses and logistics facilities, and in particular offshore wind farms and oil fields. A few days ago, the company announced a new fleet of 70 5G-connected “safety drones” to support local emergency services.
A local business paper quotes CityMesh and BASF as saying: 5G will help with fire protection, monitoring of facilities and teams, and improve the overall efficiency of ports. ” They assigned the network to push-to-talk communications, surveillance camera streams, and “logistics processes.” There is also vague mention of introducing machine vision apps for live monitoring of factory equipment. According to one report, the pair want to open up their experience to “the entire sector and, ultimately, the industry’s 5G community.”
BASF is building a new production plant for alkylethanolamines, a chemical group consisting of amino acids and alcohols used in cosmetics and detergents, at its integrated facility (‘Verbund’) in the port of Antwerp. The existing facility covers an area of 600 hectares and includes 54 linked production plants, meaning that “raw materials from one facility are processed into finished products at the other facility.” Masu. Plans call for production to increase by 30% to more than 140,000 tons per year. Private 5G will drive greater automation and intelligence.
Meanwhile, Belgian Telecommunications Minister Petra de Sutter said this week that the country is lagging behind in 5G and has launched 21 smart industry (or city) projects to persuade local companies to invest in the technology. Announced funding of 20 million euros. Mr. De Sutter commented: The 21 projects we are proposing today are important steps for us to catch up, as each bets on innovative applications. ” Among them, funds are allocated for thermal fire and rescue imaging, traffic accident warning, and smart traffic intersections.
It is unclear whether the Citymesh drone project, which will feature 70 drones equipped with 4K cameras and 5G radio, is receiving state funding. Mr. Orange made a similar point about the country’s stagnation in 5G, when he announced his involvement in at least 11 of the government’s new plans. “Belgium is lagging behind in the rollout of 5G in the seven European countries where Orange is present,” he said. Orange said it plans to provide 5G services to 40% of Belgium’s population by the end of 2023 and 90% by the end of 2025.
Orange has opened its second “5G lab” in the country in Liege. The first was his 5G campus research center in the port of Antwerp in 2020/221. Mr. Orange talked about his 5G for health, transportation, media and military sectors, as well as public safety and smart cities. The company has an infrastructure sharing business with Proximus to deploy and activate his 5G antennas in the country. The country has not yet regulated the frequency bands used by private companies.
