5G is making a flop among manufacturers. More than a year following its commercial launch in France, only a handful of professionals are trying out the technology to modernize their production lines. Aware of the problem, the government had asked Philippe Herbert – a former Dassault Systèmes who worked for many investment funds – for a report on the subject.
This was presented Thursday to the Ministers of Industry and Digital. Agnès Pannier-Runacher and Cédric O are pleased that the report’s seven proposals are all accompanied by a list of companies that support them and are committed to participating in their implementation. “We are going to create the conditions for the mayonnaise to set”, summarizes Cédric O. “We are not particularly late, but we must not take any more”.
The report is incisive. Despite the political voluntarism and activism of a very small number of companies such as ArcelorMittal or SNCF, the vast majority of French industrialists are “wait-and-see” on the subject of 5G, according to the authors. Many, they add, have “no awareness of the challenges it represents for the future of their activities”. “Awareness must be accelerated”, recognizes Agnès Pannier-Runacher.
The failure of the 5G auction
The report pinpoints several sticking points, starting with the very sensitive subject of radio frequencies. The authors criticize the choice made by the executive and the regulator not to allocate spectrum to industrialists during the auctions organized by Arcep at the end of 2019. Or at least for having insufficiently facilitated access to this critical resource. ultimately reserved for telcos.
This point had been the subject of intense debate at the time. It had been decided once morest the industrialists, on the grounds that they were (already) not sufficiently enthusiastic. However, the regulator had provided them with two emergency exits. The first was the possibility of using a frequency band other than that of the operators, around 2.6 GHz, to build private 4G networks, with the aim of switching to 5G.
The second was the obligation imposed on telecom operators, in their 5G licenses, to comply with “reasonable requests” from manufacturers wishing to take advantage of 5G networks in their factories. According to the report, this second best has proven to be a major impediment to the development of industrial 5G.
Create a draft
Many companies have complained to the authors of the report that telecom operators are not playing the game, taking advantage of the vagueness surrounding the notion of “reasonable demand”. As for the counter of the 2.6 GHz band, it is actually “insufficient” and “too complicated”. To access it, an industrialist must pay a minimum of 70,000 euros to obtain the right to broadcast over an area of 100 km.2. The entry ticket is far too high to test a new technology, tackles the report, and the emission zone far too wide if it is a question of equipping an industrial site of a few km2. The public authorities therefore missed their mark: only twelve authorizations have been issued to date – fourteen times less than in Germany.
The first recommendation of the report is therefore to “facilitate and widen access to dedicated frequencies” to create “a breath of fresh air for industrial projects”. In other words, to review from top to bottom the official position of four years ago. If necessary by searching for new frequency bands, in the 3.8-4.2 GHz band. This will not please operators, who are eyeing it and want to avoid being short-circuited by specialists like HubOne and integrators like Capgemini or Sopra Steria who are positioning themselves to install and operate private mobile networks. “We are going to work on opening a window for manufacturers in the 3.8 GHz band”, assures Cédric O. The government is also committed to reviewing the allocation rules in the 2.6 GHz band.
Millions for 5G Fab Labs
“The question of frequencies is not the main blocking point”, puts Agnès Pannier-Runacher into perspective. “It must not be the tree that hides the forest. The report also highlights the need to distribute educational materials for manufacturers – including on health and environmental issues -, to create specialized training, to finance the development of turnkey 5G equipment (a subject to which the State announced last summer to devote 735 million euros in public subsidies)…
“Above all, we need to have life-size test centers, as in Germany,” explains Michel Combot, the director general of the French Telecoms Federation. “There are many initiatives in France, but no place of several thousand square meters to simulate a large production line, reconfigurable thanks to 5G. »
This deficit, identified by the report, must be quickly filled. The government and the Banque des Territoires will financially support the creation of the “Campus Fab Lab 5G Industrie”. The investment is valued at a few tens of millions of euros by Bercy. It is not expensive paid to modernize the French industry.
