5G Private Networks Offering Launched by Deutsche Telekom and Microsoft

Deutsche Telekom announced the launch of its new “Campus Network Smart” 5G private networks solution that will be delivered in collaboration with Microsoft. The launch follows a successful pilot with a leading pharmaceutical company in Germany.

Deutsche Telekom offers a portfolio of 5G private networks for industrial use in Europe.  The operator is now complementing its portfolio with a scalable, cloud-based, pay-as-you-grow model, along with price plans designed to lower the barriers to entry for 5G campus networks. This “Campus Network Smart” solution is built on Microsoft Azure private multi-access edge compute (MEC), which includes the new Azure Private 5G Core service deployed on Azure Stack Edge. This provides customers with a private network that is designed to be reliable, secure, and can operate across multiple sites. The newly developed concept integrates new and existing customer applications to quickly deliver secure, cloud-managed solutions at the edge.

End-to-end solution 

Deutsche Telekom will now provide customers with a complete campus network build-out, including network planning, the building of the private network using Azure services with radio access network components, and operations offered as a packaged managed service.

TeamViewer Frontline xAssist (AR Remote Assistance), an augmented-reality remote-support solution, can also be added to Campus Network Smart. This “See-what-I-see” solution allows experts to connect remotely to a pair of AR glasses. 5G connectivity then allows for live support and knowledge transfer while reducing costs by eliminating travel and minimizing down-time. 

A broad selection of robotics, video analytics, and IoT use cases will also be made available, creating an end-to-end service. These services are validated as part of the Independent Software Vendor (ISV) program for Azure private MEC.

Deutsche Telekom tested the new private 5G network solution with Microsoft in a lab environment in Bonn, Germany last year. As a second step, the two companies carried out a field trial with a leading pharmaceutical company in Germany beginning in February this year. This pilot customer tested the 5G campus network with various use cases, including the use of AR glasses for remote maintenance. Another use case saw forklifts enabled for object recognition in a high-bay warehouse in order to monitor inventory and automatically scan barcodes.