Why does SES participate in such a project?
It all started with the European Commission’s goal of making 5G a reality for all citizens and businesses by the end of the 2020s decade. The Commission, in collaboration with Member States and various industries, put together in 2016 an industrial strategy, the 5G for Europe: An Action Plan with several key objectives for 5G network technologies. This Plan is built over 3 phases: the development of the core technologies (2015-2019), the demonstration and the Proof of Concept of the core technologies (2017-2021) and Large Scales applications trials and commercial launch (2019-2025). The Action Plan highlights among other things the use of satellite technologies and infrastructures to enhance the digitisation of European industries.
What was Luxinnovation’s impact?
Luxinnovation’s European funding team, also National Contact Point for H2020 projects, participated in the creation of this action plan. Luxinnovation, in close collaboration with SES, with the Luxembourg Ministry of the Economy and the Luxembourg Ministry of Research, campaigned for the use of satellite technology for 5G networks, aligning the European strategy with Luxembourg’s national policy.
Today, the European Commission, through Horizon 2020 projects such as 5G-VINNI, is concretely implementing this strategy by financing testing platforms to technically evaluate the emerging EU 5G pilots against the 2016 Action Plan objectives. Upon publication of the H2020 calls in late 2017, SES joined a consortium and submitted a proposal with the support of Luxinnovation.
What is the expected impact of this project?
The 5G-VINNI (Verticals Innovation Infrastructure) project aims to accelerate the uptake of 5G in Europe. It is a concrete implementation of the third phase of the Action Plan. The main objectives of 5G-VINNI are to design 5G end-to-end facility and interworking sites, to provide user-friendly adaptation, and to develop a viable business model to demonstrate the value of 5G solutions and enable their widespread adoption.
SES will provide satellite services to the 5G-VINNI project, to support the development of end-to-end 5G capabilities and enable live demonstrations of 5G use cases.
The results will help identify and develop different applications and overcome challenges such as the cross-border autonomous driving testbed between Luxembourg, France and Germany.