Nokia readying private network projects in LatAm energy sector

Nokia is structuring new private network projects in Latin America's energy sector, some of which are expected to be unveiled next year. 

“I think 2024 should be a year of very large expansion of private networks in the generation, distribution and transmission sector. In transmission, mainly with a huge focus on substations,” Renato Bueno, the company’s regional head of sales for digital industries, told BNamericas on the sidelines of the Futurecom conference in São Paulo.

At the end of June, Nokia reported 635 global customers for private wireless projects, up from 515 in June 2022. As of April, 33 of these were in Latin America.

One of Nokia's most recent energy projects in Brazil was with the Itaipu Technological Park (PTI), in Foz do Iguaçu.

Deployed just over a month ago, the private 5G network was the result of an agreement between PTI and Itaipu Binacional, in partnership with Nokia and ABDI, to offer telecom infrastructure for the development of applications, products and devices in industry 4.0.

During Futurecom, Nokia also unveiled a project for Jacto, a Brazilian multinational in the machinery sector, considered the first industrial-grade private LTE and 5G network for Latin America’s agricultural machinery industry.

Jacto is building a plant in Pompeia, São Paulo state, that will include an automated painting system with cutting-edge technology, autonomous vehicle handling and an automated storage system.

Nokia is providing equipment in the 700MHz band for LTE and the 3.7 GHz band for 5G. Jacto obtained private SLP licenses for both bands with sector regulator Anatel.

According to Bueno, the network in the factory is expected to become operational next month. It will have an extension of 100,000m2 and Nokia is deploying equipment for both the indoor and outdoor parts of the site. 

In the outdoor area, three LTE cells are expected to cover the entire zone, the executive said.

“The two big areas that we see demanding 5G in the short term are manufacturing and ports. In mining, oil and gas, and others, 4G meets the use cases well,” said Bueno about the different demands for 4G and 5G networks.

VALE AND PETROBRAS

Brazil was a pioneer in private networks and today it has “the two largest private networks in the world,” Márcio Nicolay, head of Nokia Enterprise Verticals and ASN Brasil country manager, told the conference.

Nicolay was referring to projects with Brazilian mining firm Vale and Brazil’s national oil company Petrobras.

The opinion is shared by Diego Aguiar, head of operations at Telefónica Tech. Telefônica is the provider of the signal for both the projects that Nokia is supplying equipment to.

“The Vale project in particular is very complex, possibly one of the largest in the world because it involves a mine, a port and a railway. There are three chains in one,” Nicolay told BNamericas.

With Petrobras, Nokia is deploying antennas to 46 onshore and offshore units, a project expected to conclude next year. The networks use Telefônica’s spectrum in the 700MHz and 1.8GHz bands.

It is not the only network project Nokia is developing for the oil giant.

Nokia's ASN was awarded, together with Maersk Supply Service (MSS), a contract by Petrobras for the supply and installation of a Permanent Reservoir Monitoring (PRM) system in the offshore Mero field.

Mero is located in the pre-salt area of the Santos basin, 180km off the coast of Rio de Janeiro.

The PRM will be used to monitor and optimize oil production from the field and is based on the Optowave technology, developed by ASN Norway.

Maersk Supply Service will manage, engineer and execute the offshore installation itself, operating out of its Rio office and use one of its I-Class subsea support vessels to perform the offshore operation.