Vodafone has provided 5G coverage to MAS Supermarkets in Seville, Spain, to offer its customers an improved shopping experience through a mobile application with augmented reality (AR) and 4K video.

Shoppers at MAS Supermarkets will only have to download the application on their mobile devices to access basic nutritional information on the different supermarket products, from ingredients to allergens, nutritional value, and recommendations for use or recipes.

In addition, the application provides a live broadcast of the status of the establishment through several 4K video cameras, which facilitates purchase planning. The application also offers the supermarket the possibility of informing in real time of all the promotions and offers that a shopper can benefit from at that time.

To make this purchase assistance tool a reality, not only will MAS Supermarkets be provided with 5G coverage, but an ad hoc interior design will be worked on and the correct operation of the augmented reality application will be verified in the different sections.

In addition to Vodafone, the project has had the participation of local tourism company Pastview and the collaboration of Supermercados MAS.

This project is part of the 5G Pilot in Andalusia initiative, promoted by the Ministry of Economic Affairs & Digital Transformation, through Red.es, and which is being developed by Vodafone and Huawei.

Presented last November in Seville, it is in the first phase of development and includes 32 use cases that will apply the benefits of 5G technology in the sectors of energy, industry, smart cities, tourism, agriculture, health and dependency, security, emergencies and defence, society, and digital economy.

This is one of the two projects that the Spanish government has promoted through the first public call for aid to 5G pilots, resolved last spring. This initiative has a budget of €25.4m, of which €6.3m is co-financed by Red.es from community ERDF funds. Additionally, Vodafone will allocate €1.8m as part of this project.