NEW YORK – Chinese factories have installed 6,000 private 5G broadband networks to support AI applications in manufacturing, but only a handful of major US manufacturers have done or plan to do so. .
General Motors, which sold more cars in China than the U.S. last year, is an early adopter, and machinery giant John Deere plans to have its 5G network operational in the second half of 2023. However, there are no signs of widespread adoption as in China.
A major obstacle to 5G adoption in the United States is a cumbersome regulatory framework that makes it difficult for private networks to access the wireless spectrum. “Spectrum supply is also a serious issue, and he is one of the reasons why we haven’t seen an onshore non-consumer 5G effort so far,” a US official told the Asia Times for background. .
The C-band, a mid-spectrum range of cellular broadband frequencies, will adequately support private 5G networks, but its deployment has been hampered by interagency disputes. The Federal Aviation Administration claimed the C-band could interfere with commercial aircraft avionics, but wireless providers say the C-band is widely used in other countries and has never been linked to a plane crash. I object to this position, pointing out that there is no
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Defense opposed commercializing another portion of the wireless spectrum in the 3.1 to 3.45 gigahertz range, arguing that it would cost $120 billion to relocate military equipment that uses these bands. bottom.
Because of these obstacles, one U.S. official said, “It could take five years or more before spectrum designated for commercialization is on the market, and it could take a long time before critical services become available.” It will probably take another year,” he said.
There are some public examples of private broadband networks installed in US manufacturing facilities, but they seem to lag far behind their Chinese counterparts. General Motors has first announced a private 5G network for its Factory Zero plant in Hamtramick, Michigan, in 2022.
However, a GM spokesperson said in April, “But GM is nowhere near going completely wireless. GM has been working with Verizon to develop this system for three years. , added, “Even after decades of using wired networks across the company’s operations, the technology remains relatively new.”
Ford announced its first industrial 5G network in October 2021 in partnership with AT&T. And Mercedes’ Sindelfingen plant is using 5G/AI technology to detect manufacturing defects in blade discs for jet engine turbines.
Huawei, by contrast, announced its first fully automated factory in August 2022.
Dow Chemical worked with Nokia and Microsoft to install a private 4G LTE network, one generation slower than 5G, at its Freeport site to improve communications between its 40 plants. LTE’s slow response time and limited data capacity cannot support big data/AI applications that require low latency and high capacity of 5G.
MdX, a manufacturing incubator backed by the Department of Defense, has built an experimental 5G network at its Chicago test facility in 2022 with the help of wireless infrastructure company Betacom.
“The goal is to test both approaches to 5G and allow manufacturing companies to participate and experiment. may perform differently,” Networkworld reported last year.
A Nokia survey of recent 5G adopters showed modest results from the technology. Half of the companies surveyed showed their 6% or more cost savings from investing in 5G.
According to an MdX spokesperson, the manufacturer is still using older computer hardware that does not support 5G. Cisco and Hewlett Packard have started selling private 5G equipment, along with established telecom infrastructure providers Nokia and Ericsson.
However, according to one industry expert, hardware companies are still fixing bugs in their products. “They sent his 40 engineers in. They trip over each other and it takes forever to get anything done,” the expert said.
However, two American football stadiums have deployed private 5G networks.
With low latency and high capacity, 5G networks can enhance factory automation. A high-speed camera uploads thousands of photos of him every minute to the cloud, where AI algorithms identify defective parts, malfunctioning equipment, or other manufacturing faults.
Huawei’s first fully automated factory began operations in August 2022 for home appliance manufacturer Midea. Huawei claims that a series of AI applications enabled by 5G have doubled its factory delivery rate.
According to Huawei, the 6,000 networks already installed have never reached that level of productivity. Chinese manufacturers are adopting the technology because the government strongly encourages it, Huawei officials said. However, the adoption of this technology has already yielded some impressive results.
In April, China’s top automaker BYD unveiled a compact electric car with a sticker price of $11,300. This is within the reach of most consumers in China and the Global South.
5G networks will also double the productivity of ports and mines. Mining operations routinely damage communication cables, but broadband solves this problem.
According to Huawei Technologies, the world’s largest provider of 5G hardware and applications, 5G broadband can link thousands of cameras in mines and send thousands of images per second to the cloud. In the cloud, AI algorithms identify potential problems before they cause damage. Above ground operators control the huge tunnel excavators and belt conveyors with minimal personnel underground.
At the port of Tianjin, China, a 5G/AI system has reduced the unloading time of large container ships from 8 hours to 45 minutes. Automated cranes read the container barcodes and quickly place them on autonomous trucks that transport them to automated warehouses.
Follow David P. Goldman on Twitter (@davidpgoldman).
