
At the Orange Business Summit, which has brought together more than 1,000 enterprise-customers of Orange Business Services, Stéphane Richard, the Orange Group’s Chairman & CEO, presented Orange’s ambition and commitment to work with businesses to develop future uses of 5G. The event took place in the presence of Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Secretary of State to the Minister of the Economy and Finance, and Philippe Varin, President of France Industrie, who respectively underlined the challenges that 5G will represent for the competitiveness of France’s economy and its industry.
Stéphane Richard, Chairman & CEO of the Orange Group, said, “5G will not be just another new development in mobile uses. This is a technological leap that announces a significant transformation of business models for all companies and in all sectors of activity. To take advantage of the opportunities available, companies must anticipate their application cases without delay, and we, operators, must be fully mobilized to support them and develop solutions that meet their needs. The story of 5G has to be written together. More broadly, we must make every effort to make France one of the leading countries in the development of 5G.”
This approach based on anticipation and support was illustrated through the announcement of several joint innovation projects with companies that are market leaders in key sectors of the economy, such as the manufacturing industry, energy or transport, and that have an eye on the future.
Building the electronic factory of the future with the LACROIX Group
The hi-tech manufacturer and SME with an international reach, LACROIX Group, and Orange are entering into a joint innovation partnership to explore how 5G can be used within “Symbiose”, the ground-breaking prototype factory project from the LACROIX Group.
Testing 5G opportunities at the heart of industrial processes with Schneider Electric
Schneider Electric, a leader in the digital transformation of energy management and automated processes, and Orange are working together to evaluate the feasibility of opportunities brought by 5G in industrial production processes.
Imagining new in-station services with SNCF
Orange is working in partnership with SNCF and Nokia within the framework of a 5G experiment to provide a high-speed, HD video download service for passengers at the Rennes train station. Orange will launch the service in 2020 once the French regulator Arcep has delivered the requisite authorization.
Also in the mobility sector, RATP (the public transport operator in Paris) and Orange will launch, for the first time in France, a 5G experiment for autonomous and connected public transport vehicles in the Paris region during 2019. This experiment is being carried out within the framework of the joint innovation agreement between the two companies.
In parallel to developments carried out in partnership with other companies, the Orange Group will continue to implement its 5G deployment strategy. 5G connections will be installed in 17 towns and cities in Europe in 2019, ready for commercial release in 2020.