Lufthansa and Vodafone Germany launch 5G private network

Vodafone Germany and also Lufthansa have launched private 5G networks based on standalone technology in an 8,500 square meter airplane hangar in Hamburg.

The deployment of a 5G private network is knowing an interesting growth, mainly in Germany where the German telecommunications regulatory authority has actually been allocating spectrum licenses in the 3.7-3.8 GHz to enterprise and public sector organisations

” The German economic climate needs 5G. We can do 5G,” claimed Vodafone Germany Chief Executive Officer Hannes Ametsreiter. “As a 5G partner, we wish to help our market to preserve an international leading placement in the future. Those who focus on brand-new technologies today will certainly go to the forefront tomorrow.

” We support our partners in bringing 5G into everyday commercial life as early as feasible. To the manufacturing facilities. In business parks. As well as also in airplane hangars. With specific school networks that we tailor completely to the needs of our partners.”

At Lufthansa, the hanger is huge enough to house four aircrafts and the first proposed usecases  for 5G  have actually been to make use of virtual and augmented reality ro visualise 3D design data of the planned cabin equipment on tablets  in empty aircraft fuselages. This is just the initial usecase, though there will definitely be more.

Germany is a country where private networks might catch on, thanks to its engineering as well as manufacturing heritage, though this is most likely to be a specific niche usecase for telcos in other places. The threat which has arised is kicking out the telco of the loop knowing that enterprises already own the spectrum for the area and  equipments can be purchased directly from vendors, integrators and various other manufactuers .

Vodafone Germany is showing it can be adaptable as a partner, but it is an example of exactly how outside companies can come in and swipe incomes that was promised for telcos. Vodafone Germany was not necessarily required in this experiment, however collecting managed services revenues is better than nothing .