5G networks in Luxembourg are taking off and expanding rapidly across the country. The general public take-up is growing quickly, and most new smartphones are 5G-capable, so why is the take-up in the business sector relatively poor? That’s what the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) and Telindus, a brand of Proximus Luxembourg, in a new collaborative agreement plan to tackle together promoting and stimulating the development of new 5G-based services for B2B.

The agreement was signed live on-stage during LIST’s Tech Day event on Wednesday 15 June.

Within the framework of the agreement, the partnership will take on the initial form of a joint investment covering 5G awareness, with access to the 5G Innovation platform of Telindus linking to LIST labs, with the objective of generating innovative projects.

Julien Baudouin, Innovation manager at Telindus said, “Foundations for digital disruption are based on connectivity enhancements. 5G is definitely more than just a new generation of mobile communication. It will be a key driver of the 4th industrial revolution by delivering a highly secure network that will support the digital transformation of many sectors. We are seeing a lot of interest of our customers for 5G and we realised that most of them do not know how to start their journey. We are happy to allow them to experience 5G in an accessible way through our innovation platform but also to collaborate with partners such as the LIST to demonstrate 5G value, while bringing to life transformative use cases that will benefit our local economy.”

Workshops are currently in the pipeline to help identify companies for which 5G could generate significant business value.

Both organisations bring a host of existing assets and knowledge to the table to show and explain to companies the business benefits of 5G and future evolution. LIST already has a 5G awareness project for the general public known as 5G-PLANET which can be easily expanded and adapted for B2B. Prototypes and showcases will be developed, as well as demonstrations and simulations that can be set-up to show and test at potential companies before any investment is made.

Sébastien Faye, Technology and Innovation Line Manager at LIST and responsible for the operational management of the partnership said: “5G and its future developments are great opportunities for companies looking to develop new, resilient, autonomous and much more efficient services. However, many challenges remain to be solved before a mature network and innovative business cases can be developed. This partnership aims to stimulate the development of new cases, therefore benefiting the Luxembourg economy and using the country as a platform for experimentation. This exercise is a necessary basis to prepare the ground for future industrial developments.  LIST is already working on the next generations, including 6G, and we need to ensure that the link with the local economy is maintained”.

Several approaches are considered to support businesses, depending on their level of maturity with regards to 5G and connectivity in general. Within the framework of this collaboration, LIST and Telindus will make their infrastructure available for the purpose of designing, planning and testing new innovative services that can benefit from advanced connectivity. This will allow companies to benefit from cutting-edge expertise with 5G, while allowing them to anticipate the impacts and benefits for their business before investing. LIST will use its simulation and emulation environments, as well as its expertise in network planning and testing to support the emergence and calibration of business cases. Telindus will rely on its 5G innovation platform for companies to test their installation on 5G releases that are not yet commercially available.

The ultimate goal for the collaborative agreement is a push for the creation of B2B 5G use cases in Luxembourg and help stimulate and improve company ecosystems making them more efficient thanks to 5G. This should then lead to further innovation projects including research into the future beyond 5G. 

Companies likely to be targeted are those in mobility, a sector where communication is paramount. Industry 4.0, logistics, healtcare and PME transformation are other types of businesses LIST and Telindus plan to focus on.

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