Deutsche Telekom collaborates with Microsoft to offer 5G private networks

• New offer for standardized 5G campus network solutions with low barriers to entry.
• End-to-end solution based on Microsoft Azure private MEC including edge platform, networking to offer modern connected applications. 
• Concept targeted at small and medium business customers, as well as those with existing Azure landscape.

Deutsche Telekom announced a collaboration with Microsoft for private 5G networks, known as 5G campus networks. The company has successfully launched a pilot to create a new offering with a leading pharmaceutical company in Germany.

Deutsche Telekom offers a strong portfolio of 5G private networks for industrial use in Europe.  The operator is now complementing its portfolio with a scalable, pay-as-you-grow model and price plans that lower the barriers to entry for 5G campus networks. The 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 to provide customers with a private network that is 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 for customers

Deutsche Telekom plans to provide customers with a complete campus network build-out, from planning to building the private network using Azure services with radio access network components and operations packaged as a packaged managed service. Through the solution, Deutsche Telekom is looking to offer a broad selection of robotics, video analytics and Internet of Things (IoT) use cases, validated as part of the ISV program (Independent Software Vendor) for Azure private MEC, tailored to specific customer needs, creating an end-to-end service for business customers. 

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 have now launched a field trial with a leading pharmaceutical company in Germany. This pilot customer is testing the 5G campus network with various use cases, including the use of AR glasses for remote maintenance. Another use case is enabling forklifts for object recognition in a high-bay warehouse to monitor inventory and automatically scan barcodes.   

Hagen Rickmann, Managing Director Business Customers at Deutsche Telekom in Germany says: “Our new 5G campus network solution comes with low entry barriers regarding costs and effort. Therefore, we can not only address customers with an existing Microsoft Azure landscape, but also new customers in the segment of small and medium-sized businesses. They can adopt 5G technology easily and push their digitalization further - while maintaining flexibility”. 

“German industry is taking a leading role in adopting Industry 4.0 Transformation, and we are excited to enable Deutsche Telekom to provide complete solutions including network and a growing ecosystem of Modern Connected Apps into this market. Customers will benefit with a choice of ready to deploy applications over  superior cloud-managed private network to accelerate their business transformation,” said Shriraj Gaglani, VP Product Management, Microsoft.