European aerospace firm Airbus has teamed up with Spanish tower company Cellnex Telecom to collaborate on critical private 5G solutions for public safety agencies and private enterprises in Europe. The pair has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU), announced at Critical Communications World (CCW) in Helsinki today, to “explore joint opportunities” for Airbus to leverage Cellnex’s tower sites and spectrum holdings to deploy private network services to customers.
A statement said Airbus will make use of Cellnex’s tower portfolio in Europe, comprising around 138,000 sites, and private spectrum and networking expertise, acquired with its acquisition of Finnish specialist Edzom in 2020, to develop sales and solutions using its converged team comms platform, Agnet. A part of the deal, also, is to provide Airbus with a route to market in European countries where it does not already have much of a sales presence.
Airbus is targeting sales to public safety agencies, airports, healthcare, utilities, and energy companies “in various European countries”, said the statement. Its Agnet app enables secure individual and group voice and video calls, plus geo-positioning and team mapping, using a private 4G or 5G platform, with support for Wi-Fi connectivity also. Cellnex will offer network ‘run’ services, comprising the operation and maintenance of private network services.
The statement said: “Cellnex will offer all its sites portfolio to collocate equipment and to provide services such as the deployment, operation, and maintenance of networks and applications… The MOU will allow both companies to gain in positioning and market leadership through the implementation and delivery of intelligent solutions to solve public-safety and business communication needs.”
Eric Davalo, head of secure land communications at Airbus, said: “[This] should increase our chances to generate and grow joint business for both business- and mission-critical users [in] various vertical segments in different countries… [It] will fully allow us to further address communication needs on key verticals… and – together with Cellnex – help companies [to] embrace their technological evolution.”
Mikko Uusitalo, director of mission critical and private networks at Cellnex, said: “We are… eager to contribute to transforming the market with a more cost-efficient communication solution… Cellnex will benefit from Airbus’ extensive experience and knowledge in end-user organisation’s operations and needs, while continuing to provide next-generation solutions to our loyal customers around the continent.”
Meanwhile, Cellnex has put private 5G on the road by bundling a cellular edge networking solution into a van, which can carry the network to the site, in a way that is less “time-consuming and costly”. Its new ‘edge-on-wheels’ solution is on-show at CCW this week, and is targeted at emergency services and emergency scenarios, to enable the rapid setup of critical comms infrastructure in remote locations.
The solution, by its former-Edzcom private-5G division, is backed by a “full satellite backhaul private 5G network”. The satellite component is from Starlink, owned by US aerospace company SpaceX. Cellnex said the solution offers “tailored coverage” and network control, plus high resiliency with “24/7 customer support”, [and] “cutting-edge [satellite] technology,” whether indoors or outdoors.
