Industry use cases and riveting storytelling about 5G and advanced 5G deployment in the current global market, form an integral part of the MBBF each year. This year is no different. This article picks up on these fascinating aspects from MBBF 2023, in Dubai.

Marco Zanghani, Chief Network Officer of Vodafone Italy set the stage with his keynote speech discussing the EU’s actions towards 5G expansion.  Zanghani mentioned 41 Use Cases across seven sectors with high social relevance. These use cases came from the following sectors:

Vodafone’s EU-wide 5G trials

  1. From the field of applied medicine and e-health, he mentioned the use of connected ambulance robotics for hospitals & surgery wearables.
  2. Vodafone’s 5G trial in Milan also stirred innovation in the security of railway stations to enhance public safety and emergency services.
  3. He also spoke about several Smart Energy use cases. Such as more investments in building Smart Grids, Smart Cities, and smart Campuses to ensure optimized use of resources and boost citizens’ engagement.
  4. Next came the application of urban cross-traffic cooperation in enhanced assisted driving for increased road safety.
  5. Also on the platter were use cases featuring manufacturing and industry 4.0 using cooperative robotics that enhanced retail experiences and also led to Smart agriculture, thereby increasing the efficiency and productivity of the net process.
  6. He also mentioned a testbed of Augmented Reality in Classroom 4.0, which involves using Virtual Reality (VR) for an immersive educational experience, as well as the concept of Tourism 4.0.
  7. Finally, he briefly drew from Fixed Wireless Access that helped expand broadband access and address the digital divide. To read more about these use cases, click here.

Europe’s first 5G hybrid mobile private network

Zanghani proudly added, “Vodafone Italy was the first to launch 5G roaming in the EU, and Vodafone Germany pioneered standalone 5G in 2021 within the EU. In 2022, Porsche Engineering and Vodafone Business also established Europe’s first 5G hybrid mobile private network (MPN) at Nardò Technical Center (NTC).”

Furthermore, he underlined the massive shift in the European Union’s progression towards 5G deployment. According to Zanghani, by 2023, Vodafone shall have deployed its 5G network in 332 cities across the EU. On top of this, Vodafone has admittedly also adopted a pragmatic approach to monetizing 5G, offering both outdoor and indoor solutions. These solutions included a central unit, fiber infrastructure, base radio stations, radio signals, and connectivity for homes and factories. They have also employed 5G mMIMO technology to sustain the increasing traffic demands.

Vodafone’s 5G network enabled various applications, including remote surgery with augmented reality in Germany, automated guided vehicles in the UK and Germany, asset tracking and stock control in the UK, Italy, and Greece, equipment connectivity with low latency, connected mobile workers, and predictive maintenance in Italy. Their multiservice network incorporated network slicing and real-time applications, providing a single programmable, low-latency infrastructure to support multiple services and new business models, particularly in the B2B sector.

Hong Kong displays 5.5G CSL ecosystem

The next keynote speaker took us on a 5G journey, eastwards. Bruce Lam, CEO Consumer, at Hong Kong Telecommunications, highlighted the accelerating power of the 5.5G CSL ecosystem. He stated, that Hong Kong has already achieved 99% 5G coverage and the focus lies on enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), massive machine-type communication (mMTC), ultra-reliable low latency communication (URLLC), and harmonized communication and sensing (HCS).

Their applications included delivering 4K TV content, 24-bit audio through CSL, HD music, and augmented and virtual reality experiences with 5G, resulting in a 6% increase in contract renewal rates. CSL also utilized slam tech, image recognition, time-sensitive applications, and 3D modeling. Lam mentioned some of their partners such as Nestle, Häagen-Dazs, Chanel, and Pricerite, who have benefited from the 400 MHz mmWave bandwidth, which facilitated autonomous driving, e-health services, gaming, and smart transportation.

He concluded with an anecdote. He established the cultural importance of the national fireworks day in Hong Kong. Wherein, CSL used 5G SA (standalone) and mmWave technology were deployed to reduce signal interference in high-altitude areas and regulate the traffic of over 430,000 people. With a broad grin, he exclaimed, “we successfully provided real-time live footage broadcasting and extensively employed network slicing to meet the diverse needs of the live telecast.”

Dubai’s smart villa: Huawei & du unveil first 5.5G-home. (Image: FUENF-G / Shristi Mangal Pal)

World’s first 5.5G villa and industrial use

Later in the day, your FUENF-G team hopped in for an excursion to the World’s first 5.5G villa. The villa features new technologies in the field of audiovisual entertainment, extremely high-speed streaming, and smart living. The villa is a technological collaboration between China’s Huawei, and UAE’s telecom operator, “du”. It provides residents with the opportunity to enjoy exciting XR games, 8K UHD streaming, and naked-eye 3D videos.

This is made possible by du’s 5.5G Experience Carrier, which offers real-time peak speeds of 10Gbps. Even the B2B sector can hold its breath, as this technology is bound to enter industrial use quite soon, stated the experts. The villa is located on the Jumeirah Islands, this is one of Dubai’s landmark islands, developed by Nakheel, who is also famous for the Palm Jumeirah, Palm Jebel Ali, as well as other iconic projects.

As the MBBF rolls on to its second day, presenting further new innovations and use cases, your FUENF-G team continues to bring you comprehensive and detailed reporting, straight from Dubai. To make sure, that you do not miss any updates, subscribe to our newsletter for all things 5G. Also, find us on social media.

Read our detailed article on the launch of MBBF 2023 here.

 

Transparency note: It is important to the FUENF-G team to work journalistically independently. This also includes acting transparently. It sometimes happens that individual companies invite members of the editorial team on press trips in order to gain insights into global structures or productions or to participate in international conferences. Even if hotel and travel costs are sometimes paid by the inviting company, the independence of the reporting is not affected. FUENF-G contributions are neither controlled nor filtered.