Verizon Business has won a contract to build multiple private 5G networks at Thames Freeport, one of Britain's busiest shipping and logistics centers, the U.S. telecom giant said on Wednesday.
The deal, in partnership with Finland's Nokia, will see Verizon deploy private 5G networks across multiple industrial sites along the River Thames Estuary, including major ports and Ford's largest London manufacturing facility.
Private 5G networks provide dedicated connectivity that avoids the congestion and speed variations of public networks shared by multiple users, enabling advanced industrial applications, such as artificial intelligence (AI).
5G adoption in European ports is still at an early stage. The technology allows ports to handle larger volumes of data needed to run or track cargoes, cranes, drones and industrial sensors.
The companies did not disclose financial details of the agreement, only describing it as supporting a "multibillion-dollar operational transformation" of the region.
Thames Freeport is a 34 km-wide economic corridor established in 2021 as a designated UK "Free Trade Zone", offering a range of tax incentives and reliefs to businesses as part of efforts to revive the Thames Estuary region.
Verizon has been working with Nokia to develop private networks for manufacturing and logistics companies in international markets where it lacks its own public network infrastructure.
Nokia will serve as the sole hardware and software provider.
The networks will serve DP World London Gateway and DP World Logistics Park - Britain's largest deep-sea container port handling over 3 million units annually, the Port of Tilbury and Ford’s Dagenham plant.
Use cases will include AI-driven data analytics, predictive maintenance, process automation, autonomous vehicle control, safety monitoring and real-time logistics orchestration, Verizon said.
(Reuters - Reporting by Gianluca Lo Nostro in Gdansk; Editing by Matt Scuffham)