Cellnex joins 5G initiative Barcelona

The company will contribute to 5G Barcelona its experience and knowledge in the development of the connectivity infrastructures necessary for the deployment of this technology.

Cellnex Telecom y 5G Barcelona have signed a collaboration agreement to develop and implement pilot projects that will allow testing the use of 5G technology in different sectors.

One of the first projects being worked on is a “pilot” intended to analyze the connectivity in the field of security and emergency services, through the application of 5G in the early detection of any type of incident (fires, accidents, etc.) based on the capture and transmission of data and images in real time to security forces and/or emergency teams. The objective is to facilitate the reduction in response times, the continuous monitoring of the situation remotely and the adaptation and modulation of the resources necessary to address and resolve it.

Cellnex thus joins 5G Barcelona, ​​an initiative promoted by the Generalitat of Catalonia, Barcelona City Council, Mobile World Capital Barcelona, ​​the i2CAT Foundation, the Telecommunications Technology Center of Catalonia (CTTC), Atos and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) to convert the city into a 5G digital hub of European reference.

The agreement affects the definition and development of new use cases, implementation of real-world tests in the form of pilot projects within the city of Barcelona, ​​and the creation of prototypes in 5G technology. In addition, the agreement will also provide Cellnex with access to the 5G Barcelona laboratories, as well as the rest of the consortium's infrastructure and services in the city.

Oscar Pallarols, global director of Innovation at Cellnex, highlights that "we want to be close to the use cases and applications that will be based on the new standard. This is how we can also test the different elements of the 5G ecosystem in terms of infrastructure: from small cells, to the need to extend fiber optic connectivity to the antenna (FTTA), through the approach of processing and computing capacity to the different nodes of the network; the so-called "edge computing" that should allow achieve the extremely low latency levels required by critical applications such as the connected vehicle or telemedicine.” Finally, Pallarols added that “the 5G Barcelona platform offers us a suitable environment to develop and validate 5G deployment models in the different sectoral areas and environments of use and access.”

Likewise, on behalf of 5G Barcelona, Carlos Grau, CEO of Mobile World Capital Barcelona, ​​has stressed the importance of the agreement within the framework of 5G Barcelona, ​​commenting that "Barcelona is already a benchmark in 5G technology because it has the key agents in the sector, both at the public and private level, and with the commitment of all of them to translate the impact of these technologies on an economic and social level with each of the pilots it develops." The case of Cellnex, according to Grau "will be a clear example of how by working together we generate valuable knowledge that allows us to innovate and show the real potential of 5G to companies and citizens."