First 5G innovations proposed by Orange Belgium and its industrial partners

Less than one year after announcing the creation of its Industry 4.0 Campus in the Port of Antwerp area, Orange Belgium and its industrial partners unveiled for the first time the concrete results they achieved by co-innovating on Orange Belgium’s unique 5G network. Those real-life applications, tailor-made for businesses, demonstrate the power of Orange Belgium’s 5G network, and the range of possibilities it allows for the Belgian economy.

Monday, 26th October 2020 Posted 3 years ago in by Phil Alsop

Orange Belgium and its industrial partners unveiled the unique applications they co-created in the zone of the Port of Antwerp, using Orange Belgium’s 5G network. The 5G network rolled out by Orange Belgium is the first large scale standalone network of the country, meaning it offers, alongside high speed and low latency, the unique network slicing capability that makes the network ultra-reliable for businesses.

Bart De Wever, Mayor of Antwerp, comments: “Orange’s 5G can and will strengthen the competitive position of the Port of Antwerp in the much needed relaunch of the economy. Therefore, with the new federal government in place, I hope that the deployment of 5G will not be delayed any further”.

Port of Antwerp

The Industry 4.0 Campus is nested in the zone of the Port of Antwerp, the 2^nd largest port in Europe and an innovation centred logistics hub, which immediately seized the potential of Orange Belgium’s 5G. Together, both partners decided to connect a tugboat of the Antwerp Port Authority to the 5G network, allowing the ship to stream real-time images and other data (radar, sonar) to the control room. Using this real-time information, the Antwerp Port Authority can increase the efficiency and the safety of the towing of vessels across the port. It allows it to increase the number of ships entering and leaving the premises each day in the safest possible way.

Erwin Verstraelen, Chief Digital and Innovation Officer of the Antwerp Port Authority: “At the Port of Antwerp, we are looking at a number of concrete 5G applications, such as smart camera’s, drones and autonomous ships and trucks. It is important to learn now about this technology as a company and gradually prepare for the arrival of it, because the great potential lies in B2B applications. It’s also important to realise that 5G is part of our country’s digital infrastructure and that we cannot afford to miss the boat there.”