‘Silcon Beach’ 5G Smart City of Asia planned

Ban Chang in Thailand is set to be a 5G Open RAN Smart City for a wide range of things from robots and automation to aviation, logistics and agriculture.

Network software provider Mavenir has announced it’s working with state-owned telecommunications firm National Telecom Public Company Limited (NT), 5GCT, and networking company Cisco Systems (Thailand), to launch the first 5G Open RAN Smart City there.

 It has been dubbed the “Silicon Beach” of Asia by industry leaders and the partnership will create synergies between public and private sectors for a fully functional smart city.

Ban Chang city is connected to a motorway linking Thailand’s two largest cities; Pattaya and Bangkok.

It’s close to U-Tapao International Airport and Map Ta Phut Industrial Zone that are strategically important infrastructure for Thailand’s digital economy and the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC). “These characteristics make Ban Chang the perfect city to take advantage of 5G use cases across industrial robots, factory automation, remote telemedicine, aviation, logistics and agriculture,” Mavenir says.

The Ban Chang Smart City 5G Private Network operates on the Millimeter Wave (mmWave) spectrum which is ideally suited for a network operating Internet of Thing (IoT) sensors, drones and smart poles, all applications which require fast data uplink to the core for real-time analysis and city management.

It allows for real-time diagnostics of traffic, public safety, digital signage and sensitive environmental conditions.

“We are proud to be part of this ambitious 5G project which sees a whole city connected on a series of 5G applications running in parallel,” Mavenir emerging business unit general manager Aniruddho Basu says.  

“Connectivity is at the heart of this deployment – connecting people, communities, government services, and private sector services through local government data combined with new data acquired through Internet of Things (IOT), sensors, drones, and external collected data, to fully analyse it for proper city management and citizen knowledge.”

Cisco Systems Thailand and Indochina managing director Taweewat Chantaraseno says the partnership can create a single, secure communications network to support all needs that are simpler to deploy and manage from end-to-end visibility, ranging from smart kiosks and outdoor wi-fi, to smart street lighting, parking, waste and more. “Smart city infrastructure is enabling efficiency, cost reduction and improved living for city occupants and network infrastructure platform helps create these efficiencies.”