5G Market Insights: An Interview with Orange

Juniper Research interviewed Karine Dussert-Sarthe, EVP Orange Innovation Marketing & Design, Orange Group, in March 2022. Orange was a Platinum Winner for Best Operator 5G Solution in our 2022 Future Digital Awards for Telco Innovation.

Karine Dussert-Sarthe is Executive Vice President of Orange, leading global marketing, design and open innovation teams at Orange Innovation. She was appointed in 2019 to the role, having previously served as an executive for various companies including Telstra SFR, Match Group, and Orange France.
Karine has a passion for what technology and digital can do for citizens and consumers in general. She is actively focused with her team on 5G, VR, next-generation home experience and super apps as the next growth drivers for Orange.

She is also in charge of global start-ups scouting and incubation to the benefits of Orange top line.

Karine sits at the Board of Orange Digital Investments.

What is Orange 5G Lab?

64% of companies surveyed said that 5G will improve their offering or bring them new business opportunities. 72% of them said they were expecting support from their operator on 5G, this is the figure that emerges from the study that Orange conducted at the end of 2020 among companies in France.

To meet this expectation, last year we launched Orange 5G Lab programme, which supports economic players wishing to seize the opportunities offered by 5G, with several objectives:

In concrete terms, we welcome all economic players: local authorities and companies of all sizes.
We offer them two free, tailor-made journeys:

12 Orange 5G Lab sites have been set up to be as close as possible to our partners and local authorities, 9 in France and 3 in the rest of Europe.

What new use cases for 5G connectivity will be explored within the Orange 5G Lab?

Since the inauguration of the first site in Châtillon, we are proud to be able to say that more than 800 companies, from start-ups to large industrial groups, and local authorities have already been welcomed into Orange 5G Lab, 96 of which have benefited from the support offered by our experts as part of the ‘Test journey’.
This first year of experience has also enabled us to identify several trends in the uses of tomorrow, for which companies are already preparing today. For example, our programme has been able to support several projects in a wide range of fields, including Wyca (Industry), AMA (Industry), Bioserenity (Health), Iadys (Environment), Vrombr (Gaming), which was present alongside Orange at the Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2022, and many others.

Find more detailed examples on our website: https://5glab.orange.com/en/realisations/

The programme covers all use cases in all industries; we will keep on co-innovating with our partners on new 5G use cases.

‘The most innovative thing about 5G is what we’ll do with it.’

How will Orange 5G Lab support 5G deployment in Europe and beyond?

Orange 5G Lab is clearly an international programme. We started to open Orange 5G Lab sites in some countries where Orange deploys 5G (Belgium, Romania). And we will keep on opening new sites all over the countries where Orange is operating in 5G.

What are the key challenges facing 5G roll-outs today?

5G has become a reality, and the key challenge now lies in its monetisation. All telecom operators agree on the fact that benefits of 5G will emerge from the alignment of 3 elements: coverage, devices and the full marketing mix of the offer. The offering element goes beyond qualitative connection when watching a video: 5G will unlock new innovative opportunities in the field of gaming of course, but also sports or even culture. The field of exploration is wide, going from those B2C verticals to more B2B ones, such as future of work, collaborative and eLearning.

We are presently identifying and presenting to customers some mobile applications; showing the advantage of 5G coverage in the fields of entertainment, education, and daily life.

We are also currently testing specific use cases such as the ‘Eternal Notre Dame’ immersive experience, which was presented at Mobile World Congress 2022. Thanks to 5G and computation in the cloud, providing together the low latency and speed that virtual reality requires, we allow visual, auditive and tactile effects that generate emotion when virtually visiting the historical cathedral. 5G can connect virtual and reality.

FWA (Fixed Wireless Access) is also an opportunity to provide a FTTH-like service in countries or areas where fiber is not (yet) available and/or when its wholesale costs are high.

How do you see the future of 5G connectivity evolving?

Today’s 5G, also known as 5G NSA (Non-standalone), relies on 4G core networks. It provides a capacity relay to 4G where it is useful to our customers' experience, with a focus on real network performance gains.

The 5G SA (Standalone) technology, which is based on new 5G core networks, will bring increased performance in terms of uplink data rate for the end user and lower latency. For businesses, it meets the need for flexible, scalable, reliable, and secure connectivity for real-time uses. It will be possible to virtually slice the Orange 5G network (also known as ‘network slicing’ feature), prioritise certain slices to cover critical uses or specific needs and offer different levels of quality and security.

Combined with other maturing technologies of AI, IoT and edge computing, 5G SA’s technical performance will allow economic players to manage data as soon as it is produced. It will enable the future development of value-added on-demand and customised services for Orange customers in all sectors of the economy, such as industry, media, transportation, smart cities, or health.

Developing the future uses of 5G with businesses from all sectors of the economy is really part of our innovation approach. This is the reason why 5G SA and advanced features are already available for learning, testing, and innovating with companies at our Orange 5G Lab sites in France and in Europe. And why 5G SA is also deployable globally on demand for B2B customers with Orange Business Services mobile private network solutions.

We’re preparing for the deployment of 5G SA solutions in Orange countries in Europe. 2022 is for us a year of preparation, testing and deployment allowing commercial launches from 2023.

► Find out more about Orange 5G Lab

Visit the Orange website for more details about their Orange 5G Lab solution.

https://5glab.orange.com/en/