Comms, tech providers drive cross-border 5G highway in France, Germany

In what is being seen as a way to advance digital transformation in Europe, acting as a prime example of how digitisation must not stop at borders, a consortium comprising Vantage Towers, Totem, Orange, O2 Telefónica and the Saarland University of Applied Sciences (HTW Saar) have announced a collaboration to create one of Europe’s first cross-border 5G highway corridors.

In formation, the highway corridor includes a 55km section in France along the A4 and A320 motorways, and a 5km section in Germany along the A6 motorway.

The infrastructure is fully integrated into the existing Atlantic trans-European transport network linking Portugal, Spain and France to offer what the partners assure will be uninterrupted 5G connectivity along the entire route.

The infrastructure is designed to operate for at least 10 years, demonstrating the partners’ long-term commitment to sustainable cross-border digital connectivity. This project receives financial support from the European Union under the Connecting Europe Facility Digital programme, and is supported by the Grand Est region in France.

The partners said the deployment would fundamentally improve 5G connectivity for cross-border travellers, while enabling innovative industrial trials of connectivity along the entire route.

They said they have created a “cutting-edge” infrastructure for connected mobility, and that deployment of the latest-generation 5G infrastructure goes “well beyond” national coverage obligations, enabling the development of connected vehicle mobility services such as cooperative lane changing, collision anticipation and prevention, automatic traffic jam alerts, and testing of (partially) autonomous vehicles.

Technology deployment in France will see Totem and Orange install nine masts and upgrade up to eight existing ones to ensure dedicated 5G coverage on the 3.5 GHz frequency. In Germany, Vantage Towers and O2 Telefónica will deploy up to five radio masts using a distributed antenna system on the 3.6 GHz frequency.

Thierry Marigny, director of Orange Grand Est region, said: “Orange is proud to be involved in the deployment of the first next-generation 5G corridor between Metz and Saarbrücken. This pioneering project will make this cross-border route the first in Europe to enable the use of connected vehicles and equipment. In future, users of this route will benefit from driver assistance services to enhance their comfort and safety in their connected vehicles.”

Mallik Rao, O2 Telefónica’s chief technology and enterprise officer, said: “We are building a high-speed 5G highway to test how to provide consumers and companies with gigabit speeds in the best possible way while driving. This can be a major step towards making connected driving a reality in Germany. We are looking forward to partnering with the automotive and logistics industries to implement and test digital networking solutions of the future based on our high-performance 5G network.”

Totem CEO Nicolas Roy added: “This project is a great proof of cooperation between towercos [tower companies] and mobile operators to provide latest-generation 5G mobile network between Metz and Saarbrücken. This project relies on each actor’s cutting-edge industrial expertise, dedicated to providing better connectivity for all along the way.”