The United Kingdom confirms its change of position vis-à-vis the Chinese equipment manufacturer Huawei with a total exclusion of its infrastructures. By the end of next year, operators will no longer be able to purchase Huawei equipment. They will also have to take the necessary measures to remove all equipment from their networks, both new and old, before 2027.

This decision is likely to have an impact on the pace of 5G deployment in the country. A delay estimated at three years at a cost of £2 billion.

A change of course justified by national security and the preservation of the economy, even if serious tensions are expected with China in the coming months.

A spokesman for Huawei logically referred to a disappointing decision. The telecom equipment manufacturer assures that the restrictions imposed on its activity by the United States are not insurmountable obstacles and calls on the British government to reconsider its position.

The United Kingdom, as a member of Five Eyes, is particularly sensitive to the threats agitated by the USA and the pressures calling into question these privileged exchanges between countries.

It is also a reaction to the recent events which have seen China trying to regain control of Hong Kong despite months of demonstrations.

On the operators' side, we are blaming the blow. It will take them about five years to remove Huawei equipment from their networks.  

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Source : GNT

During the Viva Tech exhibition, Cisco explains to the Digital Factory the "5G rural first" project carried out in the United Kingdom. Led by the American company, this consortium of 29 players aims to find a business model to deploy 5G in rural areas and enable operators to make it profitable.

"To start investing in 5G, it is not possible to rely on the consumer demand of the general public, a large part of which is connected in 4G. 5G investments are very important and people are not willing to pay more for their subscriptions", says Cisco's director of innovation, Guillaume de Saint Marc. It has to be said that we must therefore turn to BtoB and rely on the digitalization of the various industrial sectors.

The principle is to multiply the pilots and experiments with 5G, 4G or WiFi. To this end, four industrial sectors, developed outside cities, were explored: AgriTech, transport, energy and tourism.

The fields of energy and tourism have been explored in the north of Scotland. On the tourism side, ferries were connected throughout their journeys, allowing connectivity to all passengers and a constant link between ferries and captains.

On the energy side, this territory has three offshore wind farms. It is necessary to connect them in order to "anticipate and understand the production level at a given moment and be able to absorb the energy produced by these wind turbines in real time", explains Guillaume de Saint Marc.

In the agricultural sector, the start-up Afimilk offers connected collars to monitor the temperature, rumination cycle, heart rate of cows...

In parallel, a project to identify soil quality by drone was carried out. "This is not new, but 5G is accelerating the deployment of these technologies", said Cisco's Director of Innovation.

But that's not all, since there are many uses: connect a salmon farm, monitor the water in some schools to detect legionella, test broadcast via 5G.  The aim is always to minimize the cost of its development by multiplying these uses.

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Source : L'Usine Digitale