EUWENA Presents Private Wireless at PortComms23 Event

PortComms'23, a conference on wireless port communications, was conducted on 11 and 12 October for the third consecutive year. The event focuses on the private and public deployment of wireless in terminals for port automation and IIoT. The two-day conference features a variety of presenters from the international port community, primarily port authorities but also vendors and operators, and focuses on the numerous ongoing projects and initiatives in the maritime industry.

One of the speaking slots at this event was designated for EUWENA, and where EUWENA contributed with a presentation on international private wireless developments, critical findings from the port of Rotterdam, and an outline of a potential project EUWENA intends to conduct for the Mainports vertical (: seaports and airports).

Ports are essential to the deployment of (private) wireless technology and 5G. According to statistics, ports and airports are already among the largest consumers of private wireless networks, second only to manufacturing. Numerous opportunities exist, ranging from navigation to crane automation to drones and sensors, and the business cases are frequently self-evident due to the extremely high financial stakes involved in the port's operation. Ports have already implemented dozens of wireless automation initiatives, the majority of which are in Europe.

At the conference, Spain and the United Kingdom presented no less than three port initiatives each, but there were also cases from Italy, Portugal, Germany, the Netherlands, and others.