1000+
Westhoek
Healthcare
The real challenge
Analysis has shown that mobile coverage in the Westhoek, especially outside village and city centers, is insufficient for critical applications. For traditional telecom providers, it is often not profitable to invest in these rural and sparsely populated areas, as a result of which no stable data supply can be guaranteed. For sectors such as healthcare or education, this obstructs innovation. That is where this project wants to offer a solution.
The result
In dit Europees project zal e-BO gedurende 3 jaar de verantwoordelijkheid nemen om dit extra private 5G-netwerk uit te rollen. Dit omhelst de uitbouw van de volledige infrastructuur op basis van een radioplan dat maximale dekking zal bieden voor de volledige regio en complementair zal zijn aan de bestaande mobiele netwerkinfrastructuur, met prioriteit voor de huidige ongedekte gebieden. e-BO zal zorgen voor de aankoop en installatie van de antennes, radio’s, netwerkapparatuur én het beheer van het datacenter. Europa verwacht dat het project na 3 jaar voldoende uitgerold en geïntegreerd is om verder te bestaan zonder subsidies. e-BO’s aanpak en ervaring in deze complexe materie heeft Europa overtuigd. e-BO heeft eerder al grotere projecten met succes afgerond. Zoals bijvoorbeeld de uitbouw van de 5G-infrastructuur op de Noordzee waar oa. de windturbineparken en de Belgische marine gebruik van maken.
Building out a 5G network is especially important for digital applications that always need 100% coverage without any delay (latency). E.g. a drone cannot be piloted with a second delay or limited coverage in a remote area.
The Jan Yperman Hospital will experiment with a number of innovative pilot projects during the course of this project. For example, they will use the 5G network for smart transport of lab samples, medication or defibrillators with drones and test VR applications to support patients and home nurses. POM West Flanders facilitates the contacts with local governments for the installation of the antennas and will also help to operate the network. The consortium and Europe are counting on this infrastructure to also be important in the future for innovative solutions in other socio-economic sectors such as agriculture, nature management or tourism.
The 5G network infrastructure is a realization of e-BO Enterprises, POM West Flanders and the Jan Yperman Hospital in the framework of the European call CEF 5G for Smart Communities, called "Flanders Smart Fields (network infrastructure)". The total investment sums up to 5.3 million euros and is made possible thanks to the financial support of the European Commission (75%) and Province of West Flanders (16%). The development of innovative applications is a realization of e-BO Enterprises, POM West Flanders, Seafar, Jan Yperman Hospital, KU Leuven campus Bruges, Howest and Orange. It is part of the federal project call 5G pilot projects as part of the national broadband plan of Petra De Sutter, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Civil Service, Public Enterprises, Telecommunications and Post . The total investment amounts to 4.4 million euros and is made possible thanks to the financial support of the FPS Economy (43%) .
