The 5G frequency auction, which ended in June, raised €6.55 billion for the German Federal Government. €44 million of this will now be used to set up 5G networks in six model regions in Germany. The Budget Committee of the German Bundestag has already released the money. The model regions selected are Lausitz, the cities of Hamburg, Aachen, and Kaiserslautern, the area around Braunschweig and Wolfsburg, and the Bavarian region of Amberg-Weiden. According to the decision, the funding will be used to develop, test, and demonstrate the potential of 5G in a clear and practical way.

In Hamburg, the project will build on practical know-how: from January 2018 through June 2019, a 5G technology test was conducted in the port, in which the Hamburg Port Authority (HPA), Deutsche Telekom, and Nokia participated, whereby the suitability of 5G for industrial use was tested with various applications. Sensors on three ships belonging to HPA subsidiary Flotte Hamburg provided real-time motion and environmental data from the port area. The HPA’s Port Road Management Center controlled the traffic flows via a traffic light connected by 5G, in order to move trucks through the port area more quickly and safely. In addition, maintenance teams were able to call up additional information such as building data or request support from an external expert via 3D glasses.