5G Network Expansion: IoT Boost for Industry of the Future

This is how it works. A robot vehicle equipped with a camera drives up and down the sugar beet field and transmits livestream to a Cloud-based computer in The Hague. The 5G network ensures fast transmission of the bandwidth-intensive video data. On the server a machine learning algorithm that has been trained to recognize potato and sugar beet plants takes over. If the AI identifies a potato plant it sends a signal to the robot telling it to spay herbicide on the plant. Thanks to 5G’s extremely low latency recognition and spraying are only milliseconds apart. Analysis takes up 90 percent of this time and data transmission a mere ten percent.

The result of field trials was that the robot successfully identified and sprayed 95 percent of the unwelcome potato plants, roughly the same success rate as that of a farm worker. The difference is that this unpopular task takes the farm worker 20 hours per hectare and the robot a mere three hours.

This practical example demonstrates the benefits that 5G mobile communications can deliver for agriculture when combined with the Internet of Things (IoT). Connected drones, sensors or vehicles collect data that an IoT module with a built-in SIM card or eSIM profile forwards for further processing. It takes mobile communications to make mobile uses of this kind possible. Other Smart Farming applications also benefit from digitization, the Cloud, the cellular network, IoT and 5G. Drones that spread seed, fertilizer and pesticides precisely can, for example, be controlled in real time and supplied with updates over the air via 5G, which also has the bandwidth and latency required for driverless combine harvesters, tractors and other agricultural vehicles and machinery. According to a Bitkom study four out of five farmers in Germany already use digital aids. One in three relies on smart, site-specific spreading of pesticides or fertilizers and ten percent of farms use drones.

5G delivers not only the speed and network capacity that many current and future use cases in different industries require (see info box). Mobile networks are a must for the quality of service and the security n which industry insists, and they presuppose that the network must be available everywhere.

That is why Deutsche Telekom is upgrading its network countrywide: not just in conurbations but also in rural areas. We rely mainly on non-standalone (NSA) technology and make use of existing 4G cell towers. What does that mean for industry? Expanding the existing infrastructure is faster than erecting new towers, so by the end of 2021 our 5G network will be able to supply 90 percent of the population, around 75 million people. Many tariffs will then be 5G-compatible without an extra premium.

“By going non-standalone we aim to reach as many people and enterprises as possible countrywide before we focus on standalone expansion, so we are expanding our 5G network democratically”, says Thomas Lips, CTO at Deutsche Telekom IoT.

5G-compatible hardware is a further prerequisite. All currently available 5G devices are NSA-compatible. Following a later software update most of them will also be suitable for use with standalone technology (SA) and will then benefit immediately from further network expansion. By the year’s end Telekom will be able to offer 14 tested and certified IoT modules that will enable a wide range of industries to use 5G NSA. In 36 countries (as of November 2021, see network coverage map) 5G IoT roaming is also available and we have signed agreements with international network providers. The advantage in logistics, for example, is that when a truck crosses a border its IoT tracking module will continue to be operational. IoT device manufacturers will also be able to sell their products in other markets without having to incorporate country-specific wireless modules.