Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi) and Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Smart World and Communication (SWC) have come together to establish a use case of private LTE enterprise network in India. Both companies will carry out an accelerated ‘Proof of Concept’ (PoC) at group business L&T Heavy Engineering’s ‘A M Naik Heavy Engineering Complex’, Hazira (Surat).
L&T SWC and Vi have also partnered to trial 5G use cases in the areas of public safety, smart and connected health, as part of the ongoing 5G trials on government allocated 5G spectrum. Both the companies have collaborated to test and validate 5G use cases built on internet of things (IoT), video artificial intelligence (AI) technologies leveraging L&T’s Smart City platform.
Led by the robust foundation built on the backbone of telecom in India, the Industry 4.0 manufacturing revolution across the world, has been brought about using hi-tech IoT and connected devices.
Commenting on the collaboration, D Patil, whole time director and senior executive vice president, Defence and Smart Technologies, L&T, said, “We believe private enterprise networks are here to stay, proliferate and help transform businesses on the Industry 4.0 growth path. We are excited about this technology and promise it holds, and along with our partners Vodafone Idea, are betting big in digitizing Indian enterprises.”
Vi Business, with its deep expertise of providing innovative and reliable telecommunications services to enterprises, is preparing for a future ready industry through partnerships and trials with major industrial companies. These trials allow Vi and its partners to develop India specific private LTE use cases with efficient utilization of spectrum, without impacting the society and progressing towards the government’s dream of a Digital India.
Meanwhile, Arvind Nevatia, chief enterprise business officer, Vi, said, “As a market leader in enterprise solutions, Vi Business remains focussed on empowering businesses to grow and reinvent in this dynamic digital ecosystem. We are excited to partner with L&T Smart World and Communication to build a complete solution for private LTE with cutting-edge applications on future ready 5G network infrastructure, based on technology expertise from Nokia. This collaboration will demonstrate our strength and capabilities to deliver solutions for the enterprises of tomorrow driving faster adoption of industry 4.0 in India. We are confident that this pilot will revolutionise and transform L&T’s A M Naik Heavy Engineering Complex manufacturing facility, unlocking new potential for future scalability.”
L&T SWC, having varied experience of seamless IT/OT integration and world class technology solutions, will design, implement, test and validate the network as well as the satisfactory deployment of the use cases over it.
Also, Anil V Parab, senior vice president, head – Heavy Engineering and Member of the Executive Committee, said, “We are conducting extensive POC for testing private LTE network for industrial applications at our L&T Heavy Engineering works at ‘AM Naik Heavy Engineering Complex. We are confident that LTE will help us in achieving the goals of improved connectivity/coverage and also the ability to move towards greater automation using IOT in various Industry 4.0 applications.”
The private LTE PoC, which is based on technology from Nokia, will ensure coverage, communication, and customer experience integrating vast machinery, connected devices and IoT that are critical to the related high precision manufacturing processes, at L&T Heavy Engineering manufacturing facility.
Additionally, Prashant Malkani, head, Vi CT, Nokia, said, “We are delighted to partner with Vi Business and L&T SWC to build one of the first private wireless networks in India. Our industry leading private wireless solution will offer L&T’s manufacturing facility the scalability, flexibility, improved productivity, operational efficiency, and the required coverage to advance its digital transformation. By deploying a state-of-the-art private wireless network, L&T’s manufacturing facility will be able to automate its processes and explore new industry 4.0 use cases.”
L&T Smart World offers pre-packaged digital solutions for private 5G starting from network designing and rollout, cyber security, and virtualised networks (O-RAN). It’s expertise in the communications sector as a system integrator enables it to deliver end to end solutions for an enterprise transformation.
