Mr. Grunwitz, in November 2019, the Federal Network Agency cleared the way for companies in Germany to set up and use their own 5G network. Applying for private 5G networks is straightforward and the costs are low. So is building a network simply a matter of modernizing the network?

Kai Grunwitz: 5G should be seen as an enabler for IoT, AI, edge computing and other topics. This is why a holistic analysis of the possibilities of 5G is unavoidable in order to identify individual areas of application and thus open up new business models. In addition, a single use case is generally not enough to justify the costs of purchasing and setting up the necessary infrastructure. Instead, companies need to look to the future and be open to new options.

You therefore advise against starting with a single use case - such as self-driving vehicles - and then tackling other areas of application in a second step.

Grunwitz: Such high investments require a sound business plan. The use of a new technology always requires a thorough business, technical and legal review. With private 5G, you rarely come across a greenfield scenario where planning is much easier. Instead, the existing ICT infrastructure must be integrated to ensure that processes continue to run smoothly after the campus network goes live. In addition, a high-quality wireless network requires additional approvals, especially for outdoor antennas above a certain transmission power, in order to comply with radiation limits, for example. Comprehensive cost-benefit and location analyses are therefore essential when assessing whether the construction and operation of Private 5G makes sense.

Is it possible to say in principle whether it is better to set up a private network or one in conjunction with the network operator's public network?

Grunwitz: The choice of operator model has an impact on the performance, security and flexibility of the networks and must therefore be tailored to individual requirements. If the introduction of 5G is viewed from the perspective of holistic digitalization, further questions must also be clarified: What data architecture is required? How can systems be merged? How should the security architecture be designed? What skills do employees need?

This is expertise that very few manufacturing companies have ...

Grunwitz: The introduction of Private 5G is not a classic rollout project in which only new components have to be installed and which is completed with the go-live. Current 5G campus networks are still very early in the product cycle, which means that many adjustments need to be made to the structure and implementation, and in some cases the necessary technology such as 5G modules is missing. Furthermore, until the current generation, mobile technology was reserved exclusively for carriers, which is why expertise in the conventional enterprise networking sector is only of limited help. Companies should therefore get an experienced partner on board if they want to get the best out of their 5G network.