Deutsche Telekom installed what it described as one of the largest private 5G campus networks in Europe covering the size of around 50 football pitches, for paper and packaging manufacturer Hamburger Containerboard.

The deployment in Spremberg, Germany, delivers standalone 5G from more than 120 antennas over around 350,000 square metres of the manufacturer’s indoor and outdoor facilities.

Hamburger Containerboard produces 840,000 tons of paper annually from the site with the company expecting the 5G network to offer the opportunity to further optimise information flows, logistics and production processes.

Initial 5G applications to be adopted at the site include networking of scanners and forklifts, tracking spare parts and document management. IoT sensors and associated apps are expected to monitor and control production and maintenance, while other potential future use cases include automated guided vehicle systems.

Telekom Deutschland MD business customers Klaus Werner said the network was “one of the largest of its kind in Europe in terms of the technology used,” adding it “meets particularly high security requirements and supports functions important to the industry such as network slicing and ultra-low latency.”

The installation is in collaboration with consultancy company Bayerische Funknetz, which previously worked with Hamburger Containerboard on a 5G private network for its facility in Pitten, Austria.

Hamburger Containerboard’s 5G deployment in Austria was also in partnership with Telefonica Deutschland and 3 Austria.