In close partnership with Deutsche Telekom, Deutsche Messe AG is gradually developing the exhibition grounds into a multifunctional campus. Deutsche Telekom is ensuring comprehensive 5G coverage across a total area of more than 1.4 million square meters. The campus network is being implemented as a hybrid network. This means that the trade fair has a private network that trade fairs and exhibitors can use for their applications. Visitors to the trade fairs will also have seamless coverage with Deutsche Telekom's public 5G network on the exhibition grounds.

In the first step, Deutsche Telekom is equipping five halls and the entire outdoor area, including adjacent parking lots, with 5G. The company will then supply all 30 halls and buildings on the exhibition grounds. The aim is to create a globally unique test field for 5G applications, where companies from a wide range of industries can become active with their applications and solutions. Deutsche Messe and Deutsche Telekom are developing and marketing the joint 5G offering as partners.

"For Deutsche Messe, the early decision to have its own 5G campus network covering the entire exhibition grounds is a strategically important step," explains Dr. Jochen Köckler, CEO of Deutsche Messe AG. "With the allocation of a private 5G license by the Federal Network Agency and Deutsche Telekom as a partner, we are strengthening our core and new business. We are thus offering exhibitors and guest organizers of all trade fairs in Hanover the opportunity to present their 5G-capable products, solutions and applications live to an international audience."

"With this 5G campus network, we are providing a transparent operating room for the industry in Hanover," says Tim Höttges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom. "Digitalization and innovation in Germany will benefit from our strong partnership with Deutsche Messe."

Innovative and future-oriented applications are researched, developed and tested at the 5G area of Deutsche Messe. This applies to products, solutions and applications across all industries. "We are thus evolving from a pure organizer to an operator of a site for testing and demonstration purposes in high-tech environments," explains Köckler. "We are thus developing our exhibition grounds into a multifunctional innovation campus." The Lower Saxony Ministry of Digitalization is supporting the 5G expansion of the exhibition grounds with over 2.8 million euros.

In addition, Siemens, as one of the largest exhibitors at the Hannover Messe, will set up private network technology for a 5G campus network in one of the exhibition halls in Hannover with a focus on use in industry. The network can be used by exhibitors during ongoing trade fairs and by companies for tests and field trials outside of trade fair times.

"Innovative solutions for industrial networks will be presented in the exhibition hall with our own 5G network infrastructure," says Köckler. "The special thing about the Siemens infrastructure is that it will remain permanently in the exhibition hall and will be made available to Deutsche Messe for commercial use. This means that other customers can also use Siemens technology as a test environment for their products." The exhibition center will thus become a testing ground for the use of 5G in industry.

Siemens has already taken the first steps towards a private industrial 5G network at its Automotive Test Center in Nuremberg. The company is currently setting up its own private 5G infrastructure at its plants in Amberg and Karlsruhe. For this, it is relying exclusively on its own products and solutions developed in-house. Siemens is now installing a private 5G network on the exhibition grounds to demonstrate the benefits of the technology to industrial users.