Orange expands 5G testing ground to Marseille
News

Orange expands 5G testing ground to Marseille

Orange has received ARCEP approval to expand its 5G testing grounds from Lille and Douai to Marseille in France.

Because of the crucial role 5G will play in innovation and local digital development Orange asked for authorisation to use the 3.7 to 3.8GHz frequency band.

In an exclusive interview with Capacity, Pierre-Louis de Guillebon, CEO of Orange International Carriers, said that the city of Marseille is in a "fantastic situation" for the subsea cable industry. Saying: "There are 13 cables arriving, landing in Marseille, and they are coming from Africa, the Middle East and Asia. If you consider that in Asia you have India plus China, that’s more than three billion people. All of these people want to connect to fast content, and that is located in Europe in places like Marseille, Frankfurt, London and Amsterdam – data centre hubs."

With the new end-to-end test Orange will carry out these technical tests using 5G equipment from its vendor partner Nokia

The company says it expects that the development of its high-speed mobile broadband network because of strong growth in mobile internet traffic.

Overall the company says that 5G responds to the growing content consumption led demands of customers. In addition it improves the experience of services such as augmented reality and virtual reality as well as preparing for future developments such as new service like the internet of things (IoT) and the option for companies to deploy a local wireless network.

Orange’s 5G strategy has three parts to it: improved high-speed mobile broadband, high-speed fixed broadband access and new uses - notably through connected objects to support the digital transformation of different business sectors.

Gift this article