Safety first for Ericsson in private network push

LIVE FROM MWL UNWRAPPED: Ericsson’s head of dedicated networks Thomas Noren highlighted worker safety as one of the key initial selling points of private 5G networks for industry.

Although futuristic use cases grab many of the industry headlines when it comes to private enterprise networks, during his keynote Noren indicated the improvement of working conditions was a large driver especially in dangerous environments.

“If we go to mining for example, the first use cases will based around safety,” he said. “You want to connect the workers, you want to know where they are, they want to see where equipment is around them.”

Noren noted in these types of environments just improving how people can communicate is a “big step forward”.

“We see that remote monitoring is very important,” he added. “You want to be able to operate machines remotely so you can have a better working environment for your employees. They can operate more machines at the same time and you want to be able to have flexibility in your production.”

Discussing other potentially lucrative areas, he pointed to predictive maintenance and asset tracking, alongside advanced applications using AI.

“If you want to improve your flexibility, improve automation and if you want to increase safety for your workers…then a private network can be a great help for you”, he concluded.