Ericsson, Nokia and Huawei were among the companies to stake a claim for a leading role in the hugely competitive industrial IoT sector pushing 5G, cloud and AI innovations at technology show Hannover Messe.

The five day event is one of the largest exhibitions of industrial technology in the world and attracts global attendees from a wide range of sectors. This year’s event included a specific 5G conference track and exhibition space to demonstrate capabilities of the new network technology.

Ericsson, Nokia and Huawei all have significant presences as a wide number of wireless players look to boost the appeal of 5G, AI and related technologies for industrial giants.

On the opening day (1 April), Ericsson hosted German Chancellor Angela Merkel (pictured) and Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven to promote progress being made at its joint research initiative with the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology.

The pair’s 5G-Industry Campus Europe investigates how 5G can open new industrial use cases.

Peter Meyer-Kahlen, head of Ericsson’s R&D centre in Aachen said the company attaches “great importance to understanding the requirements of the industry at an early stage in the development of the mobile communications standard within the framework of research cooperation”.

During the show Ericsson also unveiled a partnership with industrial automation company ABB. In a joint statement the companies said the deal would allow to them to accelerate development of flexible wireless automation and enhanced connectivity services in industrial settings.

Jostling for position
Meanwhile, Nokia partnered with Qualcomm and a number of enterprises to demonstrate the potential of 5G networks, including showcasing automotive industry quality control in partnership with Zeiss and cloud analytics with Siemens.

Nokia Enterprise president Kathrin Buvac said: “The fourth industrial revolution promises massive gains in productivity, disruptive customer experiences, and new business models. Next-generation networks, including 5G, will enable this industrial transformation and beyond with network reliability, capacity and low-latency features.”

Over on the show floor, Huawei presented its range of smart manufacturing enabling technologies including AI-enabling offering Atlas Intelligent Computing Platform and highlighted the potential of 5G, AI and edge cloud technologies at its press conference.