Vodafone claims hybrid private 5G first with Porsche

12 DEC 2022

Vodafone Business partnered with automotive giant Porsche to establish what the duo claimed is Europe’s first hybrid 5G mobile private network, a move to offer customers better infrastructure to develop and test intelligent and autonomous vehicles. In a statement, Vodafone and Porsche detailed deployment of the mobile private network (MPN) at Nardo Technical Centre (NTC), a facility in Southern Italy operated by Porsche Engineering. The hybrid infrastructure element of the deployment sees Vodafone use a private network fully integrated with its public mobile infrastructure.

Through an “innovative design”, both private and public coverage is offered at the location, meaning the local population can also benefit from the network. Vodafone and Porsche explained the automotive company’s customers could benefit from real-time communications, promising reduced delays, wider bandwidth, improved security and reliability, and faster deployment time. It also marks another phase “in the future-orientated development of the testing centre”, with Porsche claiming it has made continuous investments to modernise and implement technological upgrades” since acquiring the facility in 2012.

Springboard Vodafone’s network enables 4G and 5G coverage throughout the centre, which occupies 700 hectares and has more than 20 tracks for performance testing. In the future, NTC aims to develop new applications including vehicle-to-infrastructure and to-vehicle, and highly-automated driving functions. Vinod Kumar, CEO of Vodafone Business, stated 5G MPN can act as a “springboard” for a company’s evolution and the technology would help to “transform transport and mobility”.

Vodafone and Porsche are already collaborating on other initiatives, including the deployment of a standalone network and network slicing use cases at the car giant’s development centre in Germany.

Spoke uses 5G LTE technology to pave the way for safer cycling

Spoke will use T IoT, from T-Mobile for Business and Deutsche Telekom, to connect and manage Spokeware — a unique hardware and software system that digitally connects bicyclists and motorists to improve awareness and safety on the road.

Why it matters: Bicyclists and motorists are safer on the road when they are better aware of their surroundings. Spoke's emerging technology, with T IoT connectivity, aims to deliver improved safety by enhancing road awareness in the 5G era.

Who it’s for: Bicycle, motorcycle and automotive OEMs looking to make the road a safer place.

T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom announced that Spoke, a mobility platform for safety, connectivity and rich rider experiences, will use T IoT to help bicyclists and motorists share the road more safely. T IoT, a comprehensive solution for global IoT connectivity, platform management and support, will power Spoke’s new hardware and software system that delivers near real-time information to bicyclists and motorists on the road, to help them reach their destination safely.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 78 percent of bicycle accidents happen in urban areas where bicyclists ride near traffic. Spoke is on a journey to shrink those numbers by creating an ecosystem of IoT-connected sensors and cameras to provide bicyclists and motorists with highly accurate and timely alerts that will be delivered over LTE and 5G. This helps ensure that bicycles can “digitally” see cars, and more importantly, that cars can see bicycles.

Consider that there were nearly 50 million bicycles sold last year across the world. Then think about the millions of connected vehicles on roadways across the globe. Right now, the process of connecting vehicles to data requires the time-consuming, cumbersome process of enterprise negotiations with different network operators and IoT platforms. And bicyclists and motorists obviously don’t care how a safety notification is delivered or which jurisdiction they are in, as long as alerts are timely and actionable — because the outcome can oftentimes prevent property damage, injury, or ultimately save a life.

T IoT delivers network connectivity spanning the full range of technologies to support nearly every possible IoT scenario today, and tomorrow — including NB-IoT, LTE-M, LTE, and 5G — making it optimized to help deliver near real-time connectivity at scale, in 188 destinations worldwide.

“T IoT supports the low-latency speed and massive data required to connect Spoke’s global network of hardware and software on the road,” said Jarrett Wendt, CEO, Spoke. “As a result, Spoke will deliver much more than peace of mind for cyclists. It will deliver a world-class user experience with ride-enriching features made just for them — like traffic, navigation, ride and health information. T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom’s leading innovation makes them the perfect teammate for Spoke’s solutions.”

“Spoke is exactly the kind of customer, innovation, and global application we had in mind when we launched T IoT earlier this year,” said Mishka Dehghan, Senior Vice President, Strategy, Product, and Solutions Engineering, T-Mobile Business Group. “Spoke is looking to leverage IoT and 5G for global good, and with T IoT, they will have one team and solution to manage all their connections around the world — to help the most vulnerable on our roadways by connecting them to the mobility ecosystem around them.”

“The future of our traffic system is based on a robust vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X) ecosystem provided through global cellular 5G connectivity. We are happy to support pioneers like Spoke and help building up a reliable connected system for mobility safety and rich rider experiences through our T IoT global footprint”, said Dennis Nikles, CEO of Deutsche Telekom IoT.

To learn more about T IoT from T-Mobile and Deutsche Telekom, go to: www.t-mobile.com/business/solutions/iot/T IoT-global

For more information about Spoke, visit: www.spokesafety.com

Three is switching off 3G to boost it's 5G and 4G netwoks

It will soon be the end of an era for Three, as the network has announced that it’s switching off its 3G service at the end of 2024, so at the time of writing there’s only two and a half more years of 3G availability on Three.

This is a big step, but it’s a logical one, as it will allow the network to repurpose the spectrum and investments that it’s using for 3G to boost 5G and 4G instead.

Of course, this might be a worry for anyone still using a 3G-only phone, but that’s likely a small number of people, and that number will be even smaller by the end of 2024. The reality is that just about every phone sold these days supports 4G, and a large number support 5G too, so it’s only really going to be ancient handsets that are stuck on 3G.

No need for 3G

Already Three has found that 5G usage on its network exceeds that of 3G, and by the time 3G is switched off it’s likely that only a tiny fraction of devices will be connecting to 3G for any length of time. That’s down to both people upgrading to newer 5G and 4G devices, and coverage for these technologies improving.

You might be worried about what impact the lack of 3G will have on coverage even if your phone is capable of higher speeds – after all, there are still rare occasions when there’s a 3G signal but not a 4G or 5G one. But Three covers 99.8% of the UK population with its 4G network, and that coverage – along with 5G - is only going to improve in the next two and half years.

Once Three can repurpose the spectrum being used for 3G, coverage will likely improve even more. So it’s unlikely that you’ll feel the lack of 3G, and if anything you’ll probably have a better experience for its absence.

Three has also pledged to work with customers who are still using 3G-only devices, to make sure they stay connected.

So this change should be a good thing for just about everyone, and Three isn’t alone in switching off 3G. EE and Vodafone both plan to switch it off during 2023, while O2 will be doing so by 2033 at the latest – and probably much sooner.

Source: James Rogerson. 5g.co.uk