New Telekom offer enables cost-effective use of 5G industrial frequencies

Dedicated bandwidth, guaranteed availability and full 5G performance: With the new product “Campus Network M with Industrial Frequencies” Deutsche Telekom now offers business customers all the benefits of a purely private 5G network – without the need for additional investments in their own 5G core network. Based on a 5G campus infrastructure within Telekom’s public network, with the new product companies can additionally use their own 5G industrial frequencies in the 3.7 to 3.8 Gigahertz (GHz) range exclusively. The commercial launch followed successful tests in the 5G Campus network of the injection molding machine manufacturer Arburg in January 2023.

Based on dual-slice campus network
The new solution is based on the existing business customer product “Campus Network M”. This is a so-called dual-slice campus network, which is operated via the public 3.6 GHz frequency range in Telekom’s 5G network. It combines the strengths of the public 5G network with the exclusivity of a virtual private network. This means that, on the one hand, companies benefit from optimal and stable coverage via Telekom’s public 5G network – for example, for employees, suppliers or customers. On the other hand, mission-critical data traffic, for example from machinery, runs separately by a virtual private network and can also be prioritized.

Own 5G frequency – without an own core network
The new Campus-Netz M product with industrial frequencies goes one step further. Without building additional infrastructure and the associated costs, companies benefit from the exclusivity of the local 5G spectrum in the 3.7 to 3.8 GHz range. Other than Telekom’s public 3.6 GHz spectrum, these 5G frequencies are specifically made available by the German Federal Network Agency for industrial purposes. Previously, to use these purely private frequencies companies would need to install their own 5G core network infrastructure on site. With the new solution, however, business customers get their own core network components within the Telekom network. Critical data thus continues to run separately from the public network – at high bandwidths and without being influenced by public data traffic. With considerable cost synergies through shared components, the customer therefore receives an additional purely private campus network.

Exclusive 5G data traffic
The new offering enables the use of exclusive SIM cards for connected devices and guarantees full private 5G network performance with download speeds of up to 1GBit/s. At the same time, public 5G coverage is fully available. This provides customers with two 5G frequency bands and a total of around 190 MHz of bandwidth.

“Our new 5G Campus network offering enables our customers to digitalize and optimize their business in a smarter way. By integrating their own spectrum into local 5G networks in a cost-efficient way, companies now get additional and exclusive 5G bandwidth for their digital applications,” says Hagen Rickmann, Managing Director responsible for Business Customers at Telekom Deutschland GmbH. “In this way, our pilot customer Arburg is already benefiting from the huge potential of private 5G performance for smart manufacturing – and is thus living up to its reputation as pioneer in the fields of production efficiency and digitalization.”

“By integrating Deutsche Telekom’s new 5G Campus solution, we are leveraging synergies and kick-starting the next stage when it comes to digitalization for the efficient production of plastic products,” says Jürgen Boll, Managing Director Finance, Controlling and IT at Arburg. “Without any additional structural measures, we were able to build on the existing campus network and can benefit from even more 5G bandwidth for the digitalization of our machines and systems with our own 5G industrial frequencies.”

Arburg as innovation partner of Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom had successfully integrated the new product into the campus network of Arburg’s corporate headquarters at the beginning of 2023. In order to use the industrial frequencies, the machines at the Arburg Customer Center in Lossburg were equipped with special routers and exclusive SIM cards. Separated from the public data traffic, Arburg can thus test innovative applications such as automated production processes. Furthermore, at the customer center, clients from the various plastics processing industries, such as the automotive, electrical and packaging industries or medical technology, can test digital manufacturing concepts based on 5G.

CT Bureau