Orange announced plans to open more 5G pilot sites in France, in collaboration with new and existing partners. It will work with Lacroix Electronics and Schneider Electric on future use cases of industrial applications for 5G networks. In the mobility sector, it will trial in-station 5G services with rail operator SNCF and carry out tests on autonomous vehicles in the Paris region with local public transport partner RATP. It will also expand its collaboration with Ericsson to work with Renault on improving how connected vehicles communicate with each other and their environment.
The new projects were presented at the Orange Business Summit annual industry event organised by B2B subsidiary OBS, which opened in Paris on 18 April. Orange CEO Stephane Richard took the opportunity to reaffirm the company’s ambition to co-operate with other businesses “to make France one of the leading countries in the development of 5G.” Across Europe, seventeen locations will see initial 5G installations in the current year, confirming the announcement made at the Orange Hello Show, ahead of a commercial launch in 2020.
Lacroix Electronics will rely on Orange for an indoor 5G network in Montrevault sur Evre, the location where the company is building an innovative electronics factory under project “Symbiose”. Similarly, Schneider Electric will aim to test 5G applications in industrial production processes. From the end of 2019, it will carry out an initial pilot with Orange assessing how real-time augmented reality can help maintenance technicians at a plant located in Vaudreuil.
Rail operator SNCF will work with Orange and Nokia on a 5G pilot in the train station of Rennes, using frequencies in the 26 GHz band. From 2020, passengers will be offered a HD video download service, with more applications planned for the network at a later stage. Also in the mobility sector, public transport operator RATP is collaborating with Orange on the launch of a 5G trial for autonomous vehicles in Paris later this year, described as the first of its kind in France.
Already working with car manufacturer PSA Group, Orange has added Renault to the list of partners joining forces on connected vehicle applications. The operator said that it will carry out performance tests focusing on network slicing and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC), based on a hybrid V2X (vehicle to anything) architecture.
