Innovation platform: put your 5G plans into practice

We want customers to be able to experience 5G in an accessible way so that they can take the next steps themselves. This, together with the opportunity to cooperate with our customers and partners, is the idea behind the creation of the Proximus 5G innovation platform.”

What does that mean exactly?

Philippe Soutaer, Product Manager 5G innovation platform for enterprise: "The 5G innovation platform is a future-oriented 5G standalone private network based on both a 2100 and a 3500 MHz spectrum. In a 5G standalone network, 5G is solely responsible for providing entirely new applications that are not possible with 4G. We can also work with a 5G non-standalone network where 5G and 4G work together using 4G infrastructure.

It is an environment where customers can validate their 5G projects in practice, at a limited cost, and from any location where there is 5G coverage, now or in the future. In this way, we offer our customers the experience of a 5G private network before they have to make major investments.”

Can companies use it from any location?

Philippe Soutaer: "The core of this 5G network is located in Proximus’ data center. Customers can connect to this network from any location that currently has 5G coverage, including their own site if there is 5G coverage. We also created a test site at our headquarters in Brussels for customers who do not yet have 5G coverage so that they, too, can test their projects.

In other words, we have built the largest private 5G network in Belgium, which will steadily be expanded over the course of the next few years so that more and more customers can benefit from it.”

How does the process work?

Philippe Soutaer: “If a customer is interested and has certain ideas about 5G, we first of all sit down together. We explain to the customer what 5G can do, now and in the future. Together, we evaluate these ideas and choose the most interesting case for further development.

Over the next (maximum) three months, we set up this project and test it together. Proximus either provides access to a range of tested 5G devices or the customer can choose to work with their own equipment. If the customer wishes to use their own equipment, we will test this on the innovation platform before proceeding.

In addition to 5G, we also contribute the necessary knowledge and expertise in security, IoT, cloud and edge computing. If necessary, we also involve our partners, for example for augmented reality, drones and industrial automation.”

Are there any companies that are already interested?

Marleen Abraham, Manager mobile network solutions for enterprise: "We have had several interesting conversations with different customers already. One example is projecting architectural plans in augmented reality on a building shell together with our partner Mr Watts and the company B&R Bouwgroep - HooyberghsOpens a new window . Here, 5G brings the necessary speed and flexibility to send these images in real time to the HoloLens so that an architect can walk through the shell and view and validate the plans in a new dimension.”