Through these pilot projects, the government of Belgium aims to encourage the creation of new initiatives in the 5G field, Orange said.
Orange Belgium said it has been selected by the government of Belgium to carry out a total of 11 pilot projects supported by 5G technology during 2023 and 2024.
Through these pilot projects, the government aims to encourage the creation of new initiatives in the 5G field, with the ultimate goal of accelerating the rollout and the implementation of 5G use cases in Belgium.
Orange Belgium is partnering with various other companies and public service providers, to support the 11 pilots using via the Standalone (SA) architecture. Orange noted that the projects show how 5G could benefit companies and consumers in different areas such as the healthcare sector, transport and logistics, audiovisual production, public security, production and smart cities, among others.
Orange Belgium previously said it aims to cover 40% of the Belgian population with 5G by 2023, while the expected coverage by 2025 is 90%. In September 2022, Orange Belgium said it was deploying a 5G Standalone core network on a cloud-native architecture together with partners Ericsson, Nokia and Oracle.
Werner De Laet, chief enterprise, wholesale & innovation officer at Orange Belgium, said: “Since we launched our 5G SA network in the Port of Antwerp, followed by the opening of two 5G Labs in Antwerp and Liège, we have been working closely with the industry to make their business more productive, safer and sustainable by using the advantages of 5G private technology.”
“The ecosystem we have been building for years now has turned out to be extremely fruitful to companies, governmental bodies and society in general. We look forward to collaborating with all consortium partners and to deep dive into the different pilot projects that are now validated by the Federal government to boost 5G in Belgium,” the executive added.
Some of the 5G pilot projects are:
-Mobile surgical collaboration and assistance from anywhere: Barco Nexxis live is a software solution allowing external experts to communicate in real time with surgeons and the operating room team. Orange said that 5G will provide access to all data and images in the operating room and can communicate and allow the external expert to give instructions via video.
-Remote-operated container inland ship: Seafar and Orange Belgium aims to use 5G to equip several remote-controlled barges for container transport on the Albert Canal, with the option to subsequently extend the technology to a larger fleet.
-Communicate without borders: i-mens and Orange Belgium will set up a 5G network to ensure priority calls for home care staff. This instant communication supports non-native employees to communicate using translation software and videocalls with live translated transcriptions. They can use this for communication with their colleagues and supervisors or clients.
-5G for industrial drone inspections: SkyeBase and Orange Belgium plan to develop drone inspections of industrial infrastructure in a safe, efficient and quality manner using 5G.
-5GENIBUS: TRES.city, Keysight Technologies and Orange Belgium will collaborate to realize a 5G use case for autonomous and connected vehicles for public transportation in Leuven.
-5G automation platform: The objective of this project is to develop automation capabilities for 5G use cases using an Ericsson platform in collaboration with Orange Belgium.
