The 5G highway between France and Germany is positioned as one of the most advanced projects among those that will be developed in the coming years in Europe. With its creation, responsible operators and their partners will prepare the ground for advanced technology such as autonomous cars.
In the not-too-distant future, the theory is that we will drive very little. Self-driving cars will instead occupy the streets, highways and highways. Driving will become something secondary that, possibly, will remain in the hands of those who enjoy driving for pleasure. Therefore, cities have to prepare to have highways that are ready to support these vehicles.
60 kilometers of futuristic 5G highway
To begin this revolution process, the collaboration between Telefónica O2 Germany, Orange and two companies that deal with the management of telephone towers has given rise to the creation of a consortium. Its objective will be to shape a futuristic highway prototype that will have the necessary technology for those autonomous cars we are talking about.
This has been reported by Telefónica, who is very involved in this project that will revolutionize European highways and that, if it goes well, will possibly have an impact in many other places. Therefore, the fact that it begins to cover a territory between the cities of Metz in France and Saarbrücken in Germany is not bad news. It is to be imagined that this same prototype will serve as the basis for the model that will be replicated in other places where the busiest routes will significantly benefit from the implementation of advanced 5G networks.
This cross-border 5G corridor called Autobahn to Autoroute (5G A2A) will provide the technological support that the latest technology on four wheels will need. To get off to a good start, it will be a piece of highway that will extend for a total of 60 km. And, with the aim of carrying out this project in the best possible way, the different members of the consortium will divide the work to implement the development of the necessary technology.
Telefónica O2 Germany will work on the A4, one of the busiest German highways, where it will have the support of Vantage Towers to cover the technological needs of 5G. The connection in the 3.5 GHz band and a total of five radio towers provided by Vantage and configured within a DAS system will be used. For its part, in France, on the A320 highway, Orange will take care of the work with the support provided by the tower provider Totem, another of the key names in the market. In this case, in addition to the use of the same frequency, eight additional towers will be used in combination with some that are already installed. This two-way collaboration will help open an important path that, barring surprises, will help 5G highways gradually become a standard.
What uses will it have?
We talk about autonomous cars and, for many users, their eyes fill with excitement thinking about the moment when this technology becomes a reality in a big way. But, in any case, this is not the only thing that this 5G highway initiative will be used for, on which they are going to work with the intention of having the prototype completed in 2027.
The 5G connection that will be provided will have the capacity to allow those traveling in cars to enjoy maximum speed to play streaming content and, at the same time, other functions and technology can be used. To achieve the most efficient results, 5G coverage will be uninterrupted and will guarantee a speed of 1000 Mbps, as well as low latency capable of providing the best results. Beyond what will happen inside the vehicles, what the companies involved focus on is achieving maximum efficiency on the road.
Thanks to this network, it will be possible to make use of cooperative lane changing and, at the same time, avoid collisions through a technological system that will anticipate problems and risks. These more advanced mobility features will revolutionize the way cars get around and could also reduce the volume of traffic jams. To do this, autonomous alerts will be implemented that will be managed automatically and will help achieve a more satisfactory experience.
Along the same lines, it will be the technology necessary for autonomous cars to be tested in a practical context beyond what has been seen so far. Above all, the companies involved are concerned about being able to take cross-border technology to the next level, especially between two destinations as busy as those chosen for this first test. In any case, there is still time for it to become a reality, but the project looks really interesting.
