Vi and Athonet Partner for Trials of Industry 4.0 Solutions on 5G

Tests to be conducted on 5G spectrum allocated by DoT, Govt of India, to VIL for 5G trials in Pune

Mumba: Leading telecom operator, Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL) today announced its partnership with Athonet, a private LTE and 5G solutions platform provider, to test 5G-based solutions to build Industry 4.0. The partnership with Athonet includes demonstration of enterprise use cases on 5G in several areas including smart construction, smart warehouse, smart agriculture and smart workplace.

This collaboration will validate industrial use cases demonstrating high reliability, critical monitoring and control applications in primary product industries like construction, railways, warehouse, factories, etc. The trials will be conducted on 5G spectrum allocated by Department of Telecom (DoT), Government of India for establishing relevant use cases for India. 

Commenting on the 5G trials and partnership, Abhijit Kishore, Chief Enterprise Business Officer, Vodafone Idea Limited, said, “Vi Business has a significant presence in enabling smart utility and smart infrastructure solutions to large and small enterprises. Our partnership with Athonet to demonstrate and validate 5G solutions is a critical step towards building Industry 4.0 use cases, which will be a significant growth driver of the digital economy in the future.”

“This partnership with Vodafone Idea Limited shows the real use cases and benefits that 5G-SA can bring.” said Gianluca Verin, Chief Executive Officer, Athonet. “Over the last decade, Athonet has built a complete solution for private LTE and 5G cellular allowing best of breed networks to be delivered with cutting edge applications. These solutions can now be used to build the Industry 4.0 use cases needed today for smart construction, smart warehouse, smart work place and smart agriculture.”

Vodafone Idea Limited is the only telecom company in India to offer a secure end-to-end IoT solution offering that comprises connectivity, hardware, network, application, analytics, security and support. Integrated IoT Solutions by Vi Business provides comprehensive range of IoT solutions across Industries for – Smart Infrastructure, Smart Mobility and Smart Utilities, on its 5G-ready network.

Vi has deployed its 5G trial in a setup of end-to-end captive network of Cloud Core, new generation Transport and Radio Access Network, in Pune city. In its initial test results, Vi has achieved peak speed in excess of 3.7 Gbps with very low latency on the mmWave spectrum band. These speeds were achieved with state-of-the-art equipment in 5G Non-Standalone network architecture and using NR Radios.

Vi has been allocated mmWave high bands like 26 GHz and 3.5 GHz spectrum band by the DoT, for 5G network trials and use cases. Vi has also achieved peak download speeds of up to 1.5 Gbps in 3.5 Ghz band 5G trial network with its OEM partners.

The high speed and low latency characteristics of 5G network has many capabilities such as improved surveillance and video streaming/broadcast which enable the evolution of 5G smart cities and smart factories. Smart city and Industry 4.0 will help accelerate 5G deployment and usher in a promising new era of Digital India.