Digital projects ongoing at Port of Le Havre have received a boost following the rollout of commercial 5G coverage from Orange at the port.
Announced by Stéphane Richard, CEO of Orange, the port will now become the first French seaport to have whole access to a 5G network.
Coverage in the port area of Le Havre will boost the projects currently in their test phase including digitalised dredging campaigns and port operations optimisation.
The announcement comes following the creation of the ‘5G Lab’ collective in 2018 between Nokia, Siemens, and Électricité de France (EDF).
The lab is part of the Le Havre’s Smart Port City Programme, which identifies digital application scenarios that could be developed across the Seine Axis ports to increase commercial attractiveness.
Baptiste Maurand, CEO of HAROPA at Port of Le Havre, said the role of 5G in the smart city programme “offers interesting possibilities” for making the port more competitive.
“It can help us improve communications between sea and land,” he said. Maurand added that a network-connected port navigational area will allow the port to optimise safety, as well as gather multiple datasets for greater precision and efficiency.
Matthieu Bourguignon, VP Europe, Nokia Enterprise, said Nokia will be using the 5G lab to trial a range of industrial applications to demonstrate what dedicated 5G coverage can provide in a port environment.
The segmentation of the network – “network slicing” – made possible by 5G will allow us to allocate the data rates, latency and levels of security required for each user, thereby helping the port of Le Havre enhance its attractiveness.”
Alban Verbecke, Director of Normandy Regional Action at EDF, said the 5G lab will allow EDG to test 5G’s technical capacity to manage electricity grids.
Verbecke added: “5G’s low latency is a real breakthrough in this area, especially for micro-grids.
“In addition, the analysis of application scenarios for the port/industry complex is also of interest for EDF as an industrial company.”