Over 50 active 5G-related projects have been launched worldwide

“We have been doubling down on 5G as one of our main areas of focus, and we’re delighted to share that our efforts and investment are bearing fruit,” said Dominique Cerutti, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Altran.

“Our main challenge for accelerating even faster growth in 5G-related products and services is finding the talent that meets our high standards. There is a strong demand for advice and support across the entire 5G ecosystem. We will continue to invest in our capabilities to help clients realise their 5G vision.”

Some of the major use cases include:

• 5G network accelerators: End-to-end solutions including Radio Access Network (RAN), core, transport, cloud and edge computing
• 5G R&D services for test equipment vendors and NEPs
• System integration and consulting for network architecture and deployment planning
• Semiconductors: 5G radio solutions on Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) and Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) testing
• Automotive: 5G road safety for assisted driving, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, road optimisation and obstacle detection
• Industry 4.0: Advanced robotics, enhanced maintenance and operations using Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), logistic services, asset tracking, real time monitoring and predictive maintenance
• Consumer: 5G retail solutions, a live hologram for an international broadcaster and real time gaming with ultra low latency
• Public safety: Search-and-rescue missions with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)
• Health care: Mobile clinic and ambulance service and avatar simulation to encourage treatment

Most of Altran’s clients are large, blue-chip corporations. As one example, Cerutti points to the company’s long-standing partnership with Vodafone Group. Its engagements have included a number of 5G applications related to the creation of smart cities.

In Spain, Altran has been helping Vodafone deliver enhanced operations and maintenance with AR for refineries, real time monitoring of a drilling robot, search-and-rescue missions with UAVs and new services in harbor, such as virtual ticket offices.

“5G is central to our strategy, and Altran has helped us accelerate our 5G network build out, supporting a number of use cases that have a tremendous impact on people and enterprises around the world," said Carlos Becker, Head of Enterprise Marketing and Public Administrations in Vodafone Spain. “Altran has kept us true to our commitments to clients and helped enhance our subscriber quality of experience with scalable solutions.”

Masaki Taniguchi, SVP and Head of the Mobile System Business at Fujitsu commented: “Altran was able to set up a highly skilled team within a relatively short time frame to meet our targets. They were able to handle a number of complexities independently - and that in turn freed up time for our specialists to focus on other aspects of the network. Together Altran and Fujitsu successfully developed and deployed a range of 5G solutions.”

Altran has also collaborated with a number of semiconductor companies. With Intel, for instance, according to the company it created an industry-first disaggregated fronthaul framework based on Intel FPGAs, which will enable wireless carriers and NEPs to accelerate large-scale 5G fronthaul deployment.

Looking ahead to 2020, Cerutti said Altran will continue to prioritise investments in 5G and virtualisation, such as its recently announced plan to launch a communications and advanced networking centre in the company’s new Manhattan office. Other investments this year have included the hiring of additional experts in 5G and related technologies, and the development of new software frameworks and platforms to enable the products and services of tomorrow.