Mobile operators are creating services to ensure that 5G is much more than just a ‘pipedream’
Mobile operators Orange and Singtel have demonstrated their plans to create and run automated services for industry over 5G.
Orange Business Services and the IoT Continuum have won a contract with Swedish tracker company C Security Systems (CSS) to distribute and connect its LTE-M tracking systems to long term evolution (LTE) networks across Europe.
Meanwhile, Ericsson reports that it’s working with Singapore operator Singtel to push IoT services over 5G to industry. The partners have three enterprise customers running trials in advanced manufacturing, logistics, smart city development and industrial automation. Integration partners include ABB, Axis Communications and Hexagon.
ABB tested the viability of Singtel’s 5G network and multi-access edge computing (MEC) for a collaborative robot that needs instant responses to work in industrial manufacturing.
Another trial with Axis Communications tested whether high-performance devices and cameras could connect and perform via Singtel’s MEC network with edge-based analytics. The aim is to move them to previously inaccessible and expensive areas.
Singtel and Ericsson are working with Hexagon to use laser tracking devices to capture precision measurement on large pipes and aerospace parts, with the measured data transmitted to a control centre.
“We aim to accelerate the 5G enterprise ecosystem,” said Martin Wiktorin, head of Ericsson Singapore, Brunei and Philippines.
Singtel turned on its standalone (SA) 5G network in parts of the city state in May after introducing non-standalone service in selected areas in September 2020.
In the European market Orange’s brand was the crucial differentiator for C Security Systems (CSS), said a spokesman, since it creates instant customer awareness and credence to the invisible tracker systems.
CSS’s devices help service providers to track the movements of boats, pets and agricultural livestock using positioning technology. With long battery life, low data needs and industrial strength security they are aimed at Internet of Things (IoT) service providers who need to penetrate the remotest locations.
Sierra Wireless is working with Orange on C Security Systems’ Spara project. All the LTE-M modules used in the trackers were tested in Orange’s IoT laboratory and accredited to work on an LTE-M network.
The IoT Continuum is a partnership between Orange, Sierra Wireless, Lacroix and STMicroelectronics. Their strategy is simplify and demystify the omnipresence of IoT devices and the interventions made after machine to machine (M2M) conversations.
The overall mission is to expedite the mass deployment of IoT in European markets. The IoT Continuum’s main offering to Orange’s IoT service portfolio will be its specialisation in Massive IoT over LTE and 5G using Cat M and Cat 1 grade devices.