The French Government is taking action to accelerate adoption of 5G in industry amidst concern that France is lagging behind other nations in the adoption of the new technology.

On the occasion of the presentation of the report by the president of the industrial 5G mission, Philippe Herbert, the Government announced a series of measures to overcome the problems of deployment of this strategic ecosystem.

According to the French Government, deployment of industrial 5G is lagging in France. A report by Philippe Herbert, President of the French Mission for Industrial 5G, argues that France is behind other peer nations in the adoption of 5G for industrial purposes, and identifies a number of obstacles as reasons, including: access to frequencies ; a lack of suitable equipment and services; lack of accessibility; health, environmental and societal questions, and a lack of visibility and maturity of French and European industrial 5G ecosystems.

The French Government has adopted a number of recommendations made by Herbert in his report. These include:

• Facilitate access to frequencies to stimulate the development of 5G usage projects in industry. The decree relating to fees for the use of frequencies in the 2.6 GHz band will be amended to simplify access to these frequencies.
• Launch a call for expression of interest “Campus Fablab 5G industrial” . These campuses will have to bring together in one place manufacturers, telecom operators, equipment manufacturers, integrators, and suppliers to offer a range of services and support for manufacturers towards the digitization of production processes.
• Develop projects on private 5G networks for industry through a Franco-German call for projects.

Industrial players with a need in terms of connectivity or having identified 5G use cases are invited to express their interest before April 8, 2022. A “matchmaking” event will be organized on April 21, 2022 between users and solution providers. The closing date for the call is 14 June 2022.