Three Ireland and Ericsson are partnering to install Ireland’s first indoor 5G network at Glanbia’s cheese plant in Ballyragget, Co Kilkenny.

According to Three, the purpose is to increase manufacturing efficiency at the facility, and to demonstrate how 5G can be utilised in manufacturing environments.

Three say that the new network will enable faster and more accurate maintenance tasks on the plant floor, and will assist in problem solving, providing for richer analysis of plant processes and reducing manual administration.

Glanbia plans to use the 5G network to trial AR and VR applications, and test how 5G can provide enhanced connectivity solutions for the firm’s other production facilities.

Glanbia engineering manager Brian Farrell said: “We’re delighted to be involved in this ground-breaking initiative. It’s allowing us to bring to life some of the early learnings from our participation in an EU-funded Horizon 2020 5G project.

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“It emphasises the importance of networks as an enabler for digital industrial transformation and it will accelerate the trial and adoption of some innovative Industry 4.0 use cases for us.”

Three Ireland head of enterprise Karl Duffy added: “The opportunity is there for companies of all sizes to create a pilot and scale over time. The companies that act now will achieve first mover advantage within their sector which can’t be underestimated.”

Ericsson’s Radio Dot System will provide the coverage, using Three’s 5G spectrum. Data will be stored in Three’s telco cloud before being separated for different customers’ IT systems, “enabling the swift and secure delivery to the appropriate applications”.

Photo (l-r): Brian Farrell, Karl Duffy and Robert Stack. (Pic: Jeff Harvey)