Written by James Blackman
Container terminal operator Eurogate Terminals, part of Eurogate Logistics Group, has recruited Deutsche Telekom to build private 5G networks at port terminals in Hamburg, Bremerhaven, and Wilhelmshaven in Germany. The €6.6 million project, funded in part by the German government, will see networks running at each site by the spring of next year (2024). Deutsche Telekom, using Deutsche Telekom lingo, said it was “one of [its] largest campus network projects to date”. The deployments will all use the local 3.7-3.8 GHz band, reserved in Germany for enterprises.
At the same time, Eurogate will use Deutsche Telekom’s public network for inter-terminal logistics and non-critical operations. Deutsche Telekom is to deploy its hybrid Campus-Netz L solution, a “dual slice” solution running on a public network core, which will see its public 5G network at 3.6 GHz made available for Eurogate staff and clients (“for example”), and the Eurogate-owned “purely private 5G network” at 3.7-3.8 GHz offering “committed network resources for Eurogate’s internal data traffic”. Eurogate will have about 190 MHz of bandwidth across two bands.
The project is mostly funded by the German Federal Ministry of Digital Affairs and Transport (BMDV) as part of its ‘Digital Test Fields in Ports’ directive, geared to give the shipping logistics industry a platform to drive operational efficiencies, economic growth, and environmental sustainability, and to work as a collaborative innovation hub to drive Logistics 4.0 – as a function of the country’s broader Industrie 4.0 initiative. BMDV is providing €3.7 million in funding, supported by a further €2.9 million from industrial test provider TÜV Rheinland, as the project sponsor.
